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^    LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

University^of  California. 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 


Received  October,  1894. 
^Accessions  No .Oj^ / '7^  .      Class  No . 


^    u 


//^/: 


#• 


LECTURES 


BY  JOHN  C.   LORD,  D.   D. 


LECTURES 


ON    THE 


PROGRESS  OF  CIVILIZATION 


▲RD 


GOVERNMENT, 


AND    OTHER    SUBJECTS. 


BY  JOHN  C.  LORD,  D.  D. 


BUFFALO: 
GEO.    H.    DERBY    AND    CO 


185L 


^"^  Of  THU*^^ 

;UFI7BRSIT7] 


/ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by 

GEO.  H.  DERBY  &  Co., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the   District  Court  of  the   United  States  for  the 

Northern  District  of  New  York. 


^7^7^ 


STEAM    PRESS    OF    JEWETT,    THOMAS    &   CO 


OFFICERS    AND     MEMBERS 

OF    THE 
YOUNG   Mt^S'S  ASSOCIATION   OF  THE   CITY   OF   BUFFALO. 

THIS    WORK    IS    RESPECTFULLY   DEDICATED. 

As  most  of  the  Lectures  contained  in  this  volume  were 
delivered  before  the  Young  Men's  Association  of  this 
city,  there  seems  a  peculiar  propriety  in  dedicating  them 
to  those,  at  whose  request  they  were  prepared,  and  be- 
fore whom  they  were  first  presented.  I  do  not  intend 
by  this  dedication  to  imply,  that  your  opinions  in  relation 
to  the  subjects  considered  in  this  work,  conform  to  my 
my  own.  Many  views  maintained  in  these  Lectures 
run  counter  to  the  popular  sentiment  of  the  day,  and 
in  regard  to  some  of  them,  I  stand,  perhaps,  alone. 
There  is  a  tendency  in  this  country  to  over-ride  all  inde- 


VI  DE    ICATION. 

pendence  of  thought  and  action  by  the  tyranny  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  which  is  not  always  manufactured  by  those 
most  competent  to  decide  the  grave  questions  which 
demand  research,  argument,  and  reason,  for  their  settle- 
ment, rather  than  majorities.  I  have  never  bent  the 
knee  to  this  god  of  our  American  idolatry,  and  I  never 
will.  That  you  have  had  the  Hberality,  the  independence, 
and  the  courage  to  give  me  a  hearing  from  time  to  time, 
in  the  vindication  of  old-fashioned  and  unpopular  opinions, 
demands  from  me  this  expression  of  regard. 

JOHN  C.  LORD. 


CONTENTS 


LECTURE  I.  — On  the  Progress  of  Civilization  and 
Government ;  delivered  before  the  Young  Men's  Asso- 
ciation of  BuflEJalo,  Dec.  14,  1846, 9 

LECTURE  IL— On  the  Influence  of  Christianity  upon 
Civilization ;  delivered  before  the  Young  Men's  Asso- 
ciation of  BuflEalo,  Feb.  11,  1847, 41 

LECTURE  III.— The  Star  Aldebaran  ;  delivered  before 
the  Youngj  Men's  Association  of  Bulfelo,  Feb.  14,  1848,    77 

LECTURE  rV.— The  Land  of  Ophir,  from  whence  Solo- 
mon brought  Gold ;  delivered  before  the  Young  Men's 
Association,  Feb.  1849, 105 

LECTURE  v.— The  Immateriality  and  Natural  Immor- 
tality of  the  Soul ;  delivered  before  the  Literary  Societies 
of  Western  Reserve  College,  Aug.  27,  1839, 139 

LECTURE  VI.— The  Connection  of  Science  and  Reli- 
gion, with  some  remarks  upon  the  Free  School  System  ; 
delivered  at  the  opening  of  the  Geneseo  Academy, 
Oct  1849, 167 

LECTURE  VII.— The  Supernatural  Element  of  Christi- 
anity;  delivered  before  the  Society  of  Christian   Rc- 
ih,  at  Hamilton  College,  1845.    (An  extract.) 195 


^^  Of  Tnm"^^ 

USIVBRSITT] 
LECTUEE  I. 


THE 

PROGRESS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

AND 

GOVERNMENT. 


It  is  a  common  opinion  in  regard  to  civilization,  that  it 
is  the  result  of  the  progress  of  mankind  from  an  original 
state  of  barbarism.  It  was  the  philosophy  of  the  older 
forms  of  Atheism,  that  nature,  producing  at  the  first  the 
lower  forms  of  life,  gradually  perfects  her  work  from  the 
vegetable  to  the  animal,  from  the  monkey  to  the  man. 
This  system,  maintained  by  the  Epicurean  Philosophers 
among  the  ancients,  has  been  defended  in  modem  times 
by  Gassendi,  Hobbes,  the  French  school  of  Encyclope- 
dists, and  by  Darwin  and  Lamark ;  and  though  the  re- 
searches of  the  Geologists  in  modern  times  have  disproved 
the  dogma  that  organic  life  is  the  result  of  a  series  of 
proceeees  in  which  nature  gradually  improves  her  work, 
for  all  forms  of  life  exhibited  in  the  fossil  seem  to  be 
perfect  in  their  kind,  and  no  hybrids  are  foimd  indicating 
1 


10  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

the  passage  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  form  of  life,  yet 
has  this  philosophy  been  recently  reproduced  by  the  au- 
thor of  the  "Vestiges  of  Creation,"  who  attempts  to 
establish  the  mechanical  theory  of  the  universe.  With- 
out entering  upon  an  argument  against  this  philosophy, 
without  recapitulating  the  facts  which  overthrow  it,  or 
showing  the  inconclusiveness  of  the  deductions  of  the 
author  of  the  "Vestiges  of  Creation,"  from  the  more  than 
equivocal  premises  which  he  assumes,  without  going 
back  to  demonstrate  the  identity  of  this  system  with  that 
ot  Anaximander  of  the  Ionian  school,  who  taught  that 
man  was  originally  a  j&sh,  and  gradually  reached  his  per- 
fect development,  we  may  yet  notice  how  the  popular 
idea  of  human  progression  seems  to  have  grown  out 
of  this  mechanical  theory  of  existence.  Not  that  any 
considerable  number  of  those  who  suppose  barbarism 
to  have  been  the  original  condition  of  man,  believe  or 
teach  this  mechanical  theory  of  being,  which  is  alike 
contradicted  by  revelation  and  a  sound  philosophy ;  and 
yet  the  affinity  of  this  popular  sentiment  with  the 
atheistic  philosophy,  is  too  remarkable  to  pass  unno- 
ticed. Goverament,  no  less  than  Civihzation,  is  common- 
ly thought  to  have  arisen  from  the  advance  of  man- 
kind from  the  condition  of  savages,  under  this  law  of 
progression.  What  was  at  first  rude,  imperfect  and  pa- 
triarchal in  government,  has  come  at  last  to  be  matured, 
and  systematized,  and  perfected. 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  11 

Rousseau  and  Volney  represent  man,  says  Dr.  Wise- 
man, as  the  "  mutum  et  turpe  pecus  "  of  the  ancients, 
thrown,  according  to  the  words  of  the  latter,  as  it  were, 
by  chance,  on  a  confused  and  savage  land — an  orphan 
abandoned  by  the  unknown  hand  that  had  produced  him, 
and  left  to  discover  the  first  elements  of  social  life,  the 
first  rudiments  of  civilization  and  government 

Even  the  religious  teacher  has  caught  the  popular  fal- 
lacy, and  asserts  it  to  be  a  law  of  humanity,  that  the 
physical  always  precedes  the  moral.  From  the  vene- 
rable retreats  of  Yale  is  heard  the  following  language 
from  one  who  professes  to  be  a  teacher  of  Christianity, 
who  has  been  honored  with  the  degree  of  a  Doctor  of 
Sacred  Theology  :  "  Religion  is  physical  in  its  first  ten- 
dencies, a  thing  of  outward  doing — a  lamb  burned  on 
on  an  altar  of  turf,  and  rolling  up  its  smoke  into  the 
heavens — a  gorgeous  priesthood — a  temple  covered  with 
a  kingdom's  gold,  and  shining  afar  in  barbaric  splendor. 
Well  is  it  if  the  sun  and  stars  of  heaven  do  not  look 
down  upon  a  nation  of  prostrate  worshipers.  Nay,  it  is 
well  if  the  hands  do  not  fashion  their  own  god,  and  bake 
them  into  consistency  in  fires  of  their  own  kindling. 
But  in  later  ages,  God  is  a  Spirit — religion  takes  a  cha- 
racter of  intellectual  simplicity  and  enthrones  itself  on 
the  summits  of  reason.  It  is  now  wholly  Spiritual — a 
power  in  the  Soul."  This  is  a  somewhat  startling  propo- 
sition, in  whatever  gorgeous  language  it  may  be  clothed. 


12  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

and  teaches,  if  it  teaches  any  thing,  that  Christianity 
itself  is  evolved  by  the  progress  of  man,  who  at  first  is 
an  idolater,  adoring  the  host  of  heaven,  and  bowing 
down  in  temples  covered  with  gold,  to  the  images  his 
own  hands  have  made,  and  worshiping  in  his  infancy 
and  necessary  ignorance,  the  material  and  physical,  while, 
by  the  law  of  progress,  he  comes  at  last  to  worship  God 
as  a  Spirit,  and  "  enthrones  religion  on  the  summits  of 
reason."  This  theory  is  an  offshoot  of  the  same  philoso- 
phy, and  puts  Christianity  in  the  same  category  with 
civilization  and  government,  as  the  result  of  human  pro- 
gress, rather  than  divine  revelation — making  the  physical 
precede  the  moral  in  religion  as  barbarism  is  made  to 
precede  civilization,  and  as  anarchy  and  brute  force  are 
imagined  to  be  the  forerunners  of  government  and  law. 
A  desire  to  find  analogies  where  none  are  to  be  found, 
the  love  of  generalization,  the  wish  to  adopt  principles  of 
universal  application,  which,  in  elucidating  the  theory  of 
civihzation  and  government,  might  bring  them  within 
the  influence  of  an  universal  law,  which  should  make 
their  progress  of  society  like  the  growth  of  plants,  and 
give  to  the  race  in  the  aggregate  the  same  advance  from 
infancy  to  maturity  which  characterizes  the  individual, 
has  no  doubt  led  many  to  adopt  this  theory  of  progress. 
Besides,  it  is  a  pleasant  reflection  for  every  generation 
that  they  are  wiser  and  better  than  their  predecessors. 
The  progress  of  the  age,  the  march  of  intelligence,  the 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  18 

advantages  of  those  who  are  so  fortunate  as  to  Kve  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  are  stereotyped  expressions  of 
this  sentiment,  thrown  out  from  the  press,  and  uttered 
at  the  bar  and  in  the  pulpit  Every  pseudo  philosopher 
tickles  his  fancy  with  the  pleasing  idea,  considering  him- 
self a  living  evidence  of  the  progress  of  the  age,  and 
only  regretful  that  he  could  not  have  lived  a  little  later 
to  behold  the  fall  of  ancient  prejudices,  the  overthrow  of 
the  religious  principle,  and  the  resti-aints  of  Christianity, 
at  the  root  of  the  tree  of  which  he  thinks  he  himself  has 
already  laid  the  axe. 

It  seems  a  pity  to  disturb  the  complacency  of  men 
who  suppose  they  are  enlightening  the  world  with  new 
philosophies,  or  wound  a  vanity  so  preposterous  that  it 
ceases  to  be  offensive,  and  only  remains  ridiculous.  Yet 
a  very  slight  examination  will  show  that  every  modem 
phase  of  philosophy  has  its  prototype  of  many  thou- 
sand years*  standing  ;  that  sages  in  Greece  taught  the 
system  of  Berkley  and  Hume  more  than  twenty  centu- 
ries since,  and  that  every  form  of  modem  materialism  is 
found  in  substance  in  the  ancient  schools  of  philosophy. 
Even  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  of  Creation,"  to  use 
the  language  of  an  able  reviewer,  "  lands  as  without  any 
disguise  in  the  sty  of  Epicurus."  The  fact  is,  there  is 
nothing  radically  new  either  in  truth  or  in  error;  there 
may  be  new  modes  of  illustration,  new  forms  of  speech, 
new  channels  for  the  old  stream  to  run  in — cunning  de- 


14  PROGRESS    OF   CIVILIZATION 

vices  to  bring  out  in  disguise  an  exploded  system. 
There  may  be  also  new  methods  of  presenting  old  truths, 
as  well  as  old  errors,  in  a  more  attractive  form,  but  a 
practised  observer  will  find  that  in  human  philosophies, 
there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun ;  that  every  modern 
system  is  but  a  reproduction ;  that  every  new  theory  is 
really  old ;  that  all  pretended  advances  are  but  traveling 
over  a  well-beaten  road ;  that  every  fancied  creation  is 
an  old  face  in  a  new  dress.  We  all  remember  the 
beautiful  lines, 

"  Truth,  crush'd  to  earth,  will  rise  again, 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers; 
But  Error,  wounded,  writhes  with  pain, 
And  dies  amid  her  worshipers." 

There  is  more  poetry  than  truth  in  the  last  lines,  for, 
however  error  may  die  amid  her  worshipers,  she  is  sure 
to  have  a  speedy  resurrection.  Dying  in  one  age,  she 
revives  in  another,  and,  like  the  fabled  Hydra,  no 
sooner  is  one  head  cut  off  than  another  appears. 

It  would  be  an  exceedingly  interesting  investigation 
to  trace  through  the  successive  generations  of  mankind 
the  same  philosophies,  appearing  under  new  forms,  and 
with  various  claims  to  originality ;  to  mark  how  the  mind 
is  ever  working  in  well-worn  channels  of  thought,  ever 
reproducing  the  old,  which  it  yet  supposes  new, — for  we 
do  not  alledge  that  the  men  of  one  generation  are  the 
servile  imitators  of  a  former,  but  that  they  come  to  the 
same  conclusions  and  adopt  the  same  theories  as  their 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  16 

predecessors,  even  where  they  are  unacquainted  with 
the  researches  and  dogmas  of  the  older  Philosophers. 
The  philosophy  of  every  age  is  a  part  of  its  civilization, 
and  enters  largely  into  its  principles  of  government ;  and 
so  far  as  the  identity  of  the  philosophy  of  one  age  with 
that  of  another  is  made  evident,  we  find  an  argument 
against  the  popular  idea  of  progress — the  fallacy  of  which 
we  hope  to  be  able  to  expose. 

Civilization  may  be  defined  to  be  that  condition  of 
man  in  which  is  implied  the  highest  development  of 
his  intellectual  powers,  manifested  in  philosophy,  poetry, 
oratory,  painting,  statuary,  and  architecture,  together 
with  that  knowledge  of  mechanics  and  agriculture,  which 
enables  him  to  surround  himself  with  the  comforts  and 
elegancies  of  life — ^which  increases  population,  and  gives 
existence  to  commerce  and  employment  to  the  capital 
which  it  creates.  It  is  not  a  question  of  morals  and  re- 
ligion, for  the  highest  forms  of  civilization  have  been  co- 
existent with  the  grossest  polytheism,  the  most  debasing 
idolatry,  and  with  an  awfully  corrupt  state  of  morals, 
while  a  semi-civilized  people,  like  the  Jews,  maintained  a 
pure  theism,  possessing  a  true  revelation  of  the  Will  of 
God,  whom  they  worshiped  as  a  Spirit^  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.  Civilization  dMes  not  imply  either  sound  morality 
or  true  religion,  and,  if  Christianity  may  be  necessary 
to  restore  to  barbarians  a  lost  civilizarion,  as  experience 
would  seem  to  demonstrate,  yet  a  high  state  of  civiliza- 


16  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

tion  may  exist  and  has  existed,  where  religion  was  but  an 
aggregation  of  absurd  fables,  and  morality  but  a  name. 

Where  in  profane  history  is  the  evidence  to  sustain 
the  common  notion,  that  civilization  is  the  result  of  the 
advance  of  man  from  a  state  of  barbarism?  that  law, 
order,  and  government,  are  but  exponents  of  human 
progress?  The  first  great  Empire  to  which  profane 
history  directs  our  attention,  is  the  Chaldean — the  first 
that  may  properly  be  styled  universal,  of  which  history 
gives  any  notice — extending  its  sway  over  the  wealthiest 
and  most  populous  portions  of  the  globe.  Some  authors, 
as  Ctesias,  give  the  Chaldean  Empire  a  duration  of  thir- 
teen hundred  years,  while  Herodotus  limits  it  to  five 
hundred  and  twenty.  Callisthenes,  a  Philospher,  who 
followed  Alexander  the  Great,  in  his  Asiatic  conquests, 
says,  that  the  Babylonians  reckoned  themselves  to  be  of 
nineteen  hundred  and  three  years  standing,  which  would 
make  the  foundation  of  their  Empire  to  have  been  laid 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  years  after  the  flood,  according 
to  the  Scriptural  Chronology.  Though  the  history  of  the 
Chaldean  Empire  is  in  some  respects  obscure,  yet  enough 
is  known,  to  establish  beyond  controversy  the  fact  of  a 
high  civilization.  Semiramis,  by  whom  Babylon  was 
greatly  enlarged  and  beautified,  ^ployed  in  this  work 
two  millions  of  men,  selected  from  the  provinces  of  her 
vast  Empire ;  and  it  is  only  necessary  to  remind  you  of 
her  walls  sixty  miles  in  circumference,  of  the  thickness  of 


AND   GOVERNMENT.  17 

eighty-seven  feet,  of  the  height  of  three  hundred  and  fifty, 
in  the  form  of  an  exact  square,  each  side  fifteen  miles  in 
length ;  of  her  one  hundred  brazen  gates ;  of  the  lake  and 
canals  made  to  regulate  the  flow  of  the  Euphrates ;  of  her 
hanging  gardens;  of  her  magnificent  Palaces;  of  the 
Temple  of  the  God  Belus — all  works  of  such  surpassing 
magnificence,  says  a  historian,  as  scarcely  to  be  compre- 
hended. So  far  as  architecture  and  the  arts  are  signs  of 
civilization,  we  find  them  in  higher  perfection  in  the  first 
than  in  the  last  ages,  among  the  most  ancient  rather  than 
the  most  modern.  That  learning  flourished,  we  learn 
from  the  study  of  the  stars  in  the  plain  of  Babylon  by 
the  sages  of  Chaldea,  though  they  had  not  the  true 
astronomy ;  neither  had  the  Greeks,  who  are  our  masters 
in  poetry,  oratory,  and  the  arts,  as  very  likely  the  Chal- 
deans were,  though  we  are  not  so  fortunate  as  to  possess 
their  records,  swallowed  up  as  they  are  in  the  remorseless 
sea  of  time.  If  we  have  gained  in  the  discovery  of  the 
power  of  steam,  we  may  set  against  it  the  acknowledged 
fact  that  many  mechanical  powers  known  to  the  ancients 
are  lost  to  us.  The  French  engkieers,  the  ablest  in  Eu- 
rope, were  unable  to  remove  a  monument  a  few  rods  to 
the  sea,  which  the  Egyptians  brought  from  quarries  hun- 
dreds of  miles  from  the  place  of  its  erection.  Many 
authors,  whose  opinions  are  worthy  of  respect,  believe 
that  the  Egyptians  knew  and  availed  themselves  of  the 
power  of  steam.  What  shall  we  say  of  Egypt — whose 
1* 


18  PROGRESS   OF    CIVILIZATION 

magnificent  monuments  are  the  wonder  of  every  age  ? 
What  shall  we  say  of  a  people  whose  Pyramids  and 
Temples  have  survived  the  historic  records  of  their 
founders — the  vastness,  durability,  and  magnificence  of 
whose  monuments  shame  the  puny  efforts  of  the 
moderns?  What  shall  we  say  of  a  nation  who  have 
left  their  hand- writing  upon  the  everlasting  mountains — 
the  lines  of  whose  artificial  rivers  are  yet  visible — whose 
marvelous  hieroglyphics,  but  just  beginning  to  be  read, 
point  us  to  the  earliest  profane  records  of  our  race — 
whose  knowledge  of  the  mechanical  powers  excites  the 
astonishment  and  baffles  the  research  of  the  most  scien- 
tific of  our  engineers  ?  Shall  we  call  them  barbarians  ? 
We  may  do  so  now,  indeed,  for  the  degraded  Egyp- 
tian has  been  sunk,  for  many  centuries,  in  the  lowest 
barbarism.  But  the  progress  has  been  downward,  from 
civilization  to  barbarism.  This  is  true  of  the  Chaldean, 
and  of  all  the  great  Empires  of  antiquity,  the  territories 
of  which  are  occupied  now  by  a  comparatively  barbarous 
people.  Civilization,  we  believe,  was  the  original  condi- 
tion of  mankind,  while  barbarism  is  the  law  of  progress. 
Should  it  be  replied  to  this,  that  the  basis  of  the  present 
population  of  Europe  is  to  be  found  in  the  inundation 
of  the  barbarous  tribes  who  swept  over  the  Empire  of 
Rome  in  her  decline;  we  reply,  that  the  present  in- 
habitants of  Europe  are  the  descendants  of  a  mixed 
people  —  the  barbarian  intermarried  with  the  people  he 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  IQ 

subjected,  and  received  their  religion  and  laws,  and  that 
religion  was  Christianity,  which,  we  have  already  said, 
has  proved  her  divine  origin,  and  the  capability  which 
she  possesses  of  restoring  and  preserving  a  receding 
civilization. 

Christianity  revives  a  decaying  civilization,  and  places 
it  on  a  sure  foundation.  This  is  evident  from  its  in- 
fluence upon  the  nations  of  Europe,  after  the  subversion 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  It  is  exhibiting  its  influence  in 
this  respect^  in  the  isles  of  the  sea  at  the  present  day. 
Did  time  permit^  and  did  it  fall  in  with  the  plan  of  this 
lecture,  we  might  show  that  the  Gtospel  is  designed  and 
adapted,  by  its  Divine  Author,  to  restore  the  original 
blessings  of  civilization,  as  well  as  the  hope  of  another 
and  a  better  life  to  our  race.  The  advocates  of  the 
doctrine  of  human  progress  ought  to  remember  that 
our  models  of  statuary  are  dug  out  of  the  ruins  of 
Athens  and  Rome ;  that  our  architecture  is  but  an  im- 
perfect imitation  of  the  glorious  edifices  of  antiquity; 
that  our  masters  in  poetry  and  oratory  flourished  from 
twenty  to  thirty  centuries  since ;  and  that  our  historians 
are  flattered  when  they  are  thought  to  resemble  or 
imitate  Herodotus  and  Xenophon,  Tacitus  and  Livy. 
So  far  as  the  development  of  intellectual  power  is  con- 
cemed,  the  ancients  are  our  superiors.  In  the  inven- 
tions by  which  the  elements  are  subjugated  to  the 
human  will,  by  which  the   lightnings   of  heaven  are 


;uiri7BRsiTrl 


09* 


4rT^'^^: 


20  PROGRESS   OF   CIVILIZATION 

drawn  harmlessly  to  the  earth,  or  made  the  vehicles  of 
human  thought,  passing  with  the  speed  of  an  angel's 
flight  over  states  and  continents,  we  have  progTessed 
beyond  them.  But  our  advance  is  accompanied  with 
a  corresponding  loss,  which  leaves  the  question  of  our 
supremacy  open  to  discussion  and  subject  to  doubt 
Besides,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  in  those  parts  of 
the  world  occupied  now  by  barbarous  and  savage  in- 
habitants, without  the  arts,  without  a  written  language, 
without  either  the  comforts  or  the  elegancies  of  life,  the 
remains  of  a  former  civilization  are  almost  universally 
discernible. 

Our  countryman,  Stephens,  has  made  us  acquainted 
with  the  mysterious  monuments  of  a  past  race,  in  the 
deserted  forests  and  savannahs  of  Central  America,  over 
which  the  indolent  Indian,  and  the  almost  equally  de- 
graded half-breed,  stalk  without  interest  in,  or  admiration 
of,  these  grand  remains  of  their  predecessors.  These 
monuments  are  unique  in  their  kind,  bearing  a  faint 
resemblance  to  the  Egyptian  statuary  and  architecture, 
and  yet  differing  in  so  many  particulars  as  to  make  it 
certain  they  were  a  different  people.  Traces  of  a  former 
state  of  comparative  civilization  are  discovered  through- 
out North  America,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  our 
Indians  are  the  descendants  of  those  who,  by  the  down- 
ward law  of  progress,  have  lost  the  civilization  of  their 
fathers7;7-:for  we  cannot  conceive  a  whole  people  to  have 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  21 

been  entirely  exterminated.  Neither  war,  famine,  nor 
pestilence  ever  utterly  destroyed  a  population.  More- 
over, the  very  same  process  is  being  repeated  in  South 
America  The  civilization  introduced  by  the  Spaniards, 
ig  rapidly  degenerating  into  barbarism.  Our  papers  are 
filled  with  details  of  Mexico,  which  show  us  that,  at  best, 
she  is  but  a  semi-civilized  state,  rapidly  deteriorating. 

A  recent  traveler  in  Peru,  a  scientific  German,  Dr. 
TscHUDi,  asserts,  that  population  is  diminishing  and  de- 
teriorating. Lima,  which  contained  in  1810,  87,000 
inhabitants,  contained  in  1842,  but  53,000.  Dr.  T.  tells 
us  of  a  Peruvian  Minister  of  War,  who  knew  neither  the 
population  nor  the  area  of  his  country,  and  who  ob- 
stinately maintained  that  Portugal  was  the  Eastern 
boundary  of  Peru!  Another  Peruvian,  high  in  place, 
was  heard  to  give  an  exact  account  of  how  Frederick 
the  Great  had  driven  Napoleon  out  of  Russia!  There 
seems,  says  our  author,  a  total  want  of  national  charac- 
ter about  the  Peruvians.  "Add  to  what  has  been 
already  shown  of  their  cruel  and  sensual  propensities, 
the  fact  that  their  habitations,  with  the  exception  of  two 
rooms  in  which  their  visits  are  received,  bear  more  re- 
semblance, for  cleanliness  and  order,  to  stables  than  to 
human  dwellings,  and  it  will  be  acknowledged  that  not 
a  little  of  the  savage  seems  to  have  rubbed  off  upon  the 
Peruvian."  In  this  downward  progress,  thus  declared 
by  an  eye  witness,  how  long  will  it  be  before  the  monu- 


22  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

merits  of  Pizarro,  the  world-famous  Cathedral,  com- 
menced by  him,  and  which  was  ninety  years  in  com- 
pleting, and  the  other  memorials  of  Spanish  magnificence 
and  civilization,  will  stand  like  the  ruined  columns  and 
broken  arches,  and  mutilated  sculptures  discovered  by 
Stephens,  among  a  race  of  barbarians,  who,  without  a 
remembrance  of  their  former  greatness,  shall  gaze,  like 
the  Indian,  in  stupid  wonder  upon  the  ruins  that  serve 
only  to  mark  the  flight  of  centuries. 

Of  government,  which  is  intimately  connected  with 
civilization,  it  may  be  said,  that  all  the  forms  that  now 
exist  were  anciently  known.  We  find  the  monarchical, 
the  aristocratic,  and  the  democratic  modes  of  govern- 
ment prevailing  in  the  remotest  antiquity ;  and,  setting 
aside  the  mild  and  beneficent  influence  of  Christianity, 
establisliing  a  higher  standard  of  morals,  and  amelio- 
rating the  severity  of  law,  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  government  was  anciently  as  well  understood,  and, 
perhaps,  as  well  administered,  as  in  modern  times.  Can 
any  man  point  out  the  particulars  in  which  progress  has 
been  made,  either  in  the  matter  or  form  of  government, 
independent  of  the  above  mentioned  influence  of  the 
Christian  religion?  Can  it  be  shown,  from  a  reliable 
source,  that  the  science  of  government  is  better  under- 
stood by  the  moderns  than  it  was  by  the  Chaldeans,  the 
Persians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Greeks,  or  the  Romans? 
Should  it  be  rephed,  that  the  civilization  and  govern- 


AND    GOVERNMBNT.  38 

ment  of  the  ancient  Empires  were  inferior  to  the  modem 
in  the  more  general  diffusion  of  intelligence,  and  the 
better  protection  of  the  masses — we  answer,  that  more  is 
assumed  on  this  subject  than  can  be  proved.  It  is  in- 
ferred, that  the  gigantic  monuments  of  ancient  civilization 
were  the  result  of  the  ambition  and  oppression  of  the 
rulers  of  a  people  who,  themselves,  had  no  sympathy  with 
those  vast  undertaking-s.  We  do  not  altogether  credit  this 
assumption ;  and,  while  it  must  be  admitted  that  ancient 
civilization,  as  it  approached  its  fall,  was  characterized 
by  luxury  and  eflfeminacy,  and  by  the  increased  poverty 
and  oppression  of  the  lower  classes,  of  which  the  Roman 
Empire  in  the  Augustan  age  is  an  example,  yet  do  we 
not  find  a  parallel  in  modern  times?  Compare  the 
merry  England  of  Elizabeth's  reign  with  the  same  Eng- 
land at  the  present  time,  and,  while  the  advance  of 
empire,  the  increase  of  wealth  and  population,  are  mani- 
fest, can  any  observing  man  fail  to  see  that  the  lower 
classes  have  become  paupers,  and  that  the  masses  in 
Gb'eat  Britain  are  inferior  in  physical  development  to 
their  predecessors,  while  ignorance,  destitution,  and  vice 
are  frightfully  prevalent  Whole  districts  are  reported, 
where  a  majority  of  the  people  are  deplorably  ignorant 
One  half  the  adult  population  of  England  are  unable  to 
write  their  names;  and  the  subversion  of  this  great 
Empire  is,  undoubtedly,  more  likely  to  occur  from  the 
increasing  degradation  of  the  lower  classes,  than  from 


24  PROGRESS    OF   CIVILIZATION 

all  other  causes  combined.  Great  Britain  slumbers  on 
the  same  volcano  that  overwhelmed  her  predecessors ; 
and,  amid  the  glorification  of  progress,  of  the  increase  of 
wealth  and  commerce,  of  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  by 
the  press,  of  the  miracles  of  steam,  and  the  advance  of 
civihzation,  her  standng  population  cry  for  bread,  her 
yeomanry  are  disappearing,  desperate  poverty  and 
misery  front,  menacingly,  the  enormous  capital  of  the 
rich,  and  the  pillars  of  government,  law  and  civilization, 
are  tottering  under  the  same  weight  which  has  crushed 
every  Empire,  from  the  Chaldean  to  the  Roman. 

But  does  not  Sacred  History  bear  the  same  testimony  ? 
Without  attempting  to  speak  "  ex  cathedra/*  we  may,  at 
least,  look  into  these  ancient  records,  in  a  philosophic,  if 
not  in  a  religious  spirit  —  records,  which  alone  furnish 
us  with  details  of  the  origin  and  early  history  of  our 
race.  Not  only  do  the  Sacred  Scriptures  assert,  that 
man  came  from  the  hands  of  his  Maker  in  the  full  per- 
fection of  his  powers,  made  in  the  moral  and  intellectual 
image  of  God ;  but  they  teach  us  that,  after  the  apos- 
tacy,  he  remained  in  a  civilized,  and  not  in  a  savage 
state.  Among  the  immediate  descendants  of  Adam, 
were  the  inventor  of  the  harp  and  the  organ,  and  the 
first  artificer  in  brass  and  iron.  In  that  old  world  be- 
fore the  flood,  there  were,  as  we  are  told  by  the  in- 
spired historian,  "  Giants  of  old,  men  of  renown."  Giants 
they  naight  well  become,  in  knowledge  and  the  arts,  as 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  26 

well  as  in  wickedness,  who  lived  so  long,  and  filled  the 
earth  with  violence.  Intellectual  development  does  not 
depend  upon  moral  character,  of  which  a  host  of  exam- 
ples will  at  once  occur  to  you. 

The  ocean  roars  over  the  monuments  of  the  primitive 
race,  overwhelming  alike  at  the  command  of  God, 
"when  the  fountains  of  the  gi-eat  deep  were  broken 
up,"  the  memorials  of  their  guilt  and  their  greatness. 
"  Deep  calleth  imto  deep,"  as  the  sea  sounds  an  un- 
changing requiem  over  the  sepulchre  of  the  Old  World, 
concealing  from  every  eye,  save  His  with  whom  the 
darkness  and  the  light  are  alike,  a  magnificence  which 
may  as  far  have  surpassed  that  of  Egypt,  as  the  temples 
of  Thebes  outrival  all  subsequent  efforts  of  power  and 
art  The  ships  of  modem  generations,  it  may  be,  pass 
heedlessly  over  the  wreck  of  a  civilization,  a  magnifi- 
cence, a  glory,  which  the  world  has  known  but  once, 
and  will  never  know  again — the  details  of  which  will 
remain  hidden  until  the  day  when  ocean  shall  cease  her 
flow  and  silence  her  solemn  anthem,  and  yield  up  her 
mementos  of  the  past,  at  the  command  of  Him  whose 
vcHce  is  "  mightier  than  the  noise  of  many  waters." 

Take  the  Book  of  Job  as  a  monument  of  ancient 
civilization — a  book  the  oldest  in  the  world,  the  date  of 
whose  composition  is  but  a  few  generations  after  the 
flood — and  where  can  we  find  a  drama  more  finished, 
language  more  sublime,  philosophy  more  profound,  re- 


26  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

ligion  more  spiritual,  poetry  more  magnificent  in  imagery 
and  diction  ?  Critics  admit  that  passages  in  this  book 
have  never  been  surpassed.  Charles  James  Fox,  whose 
partialities  were  not  of  a  religious  cast,  declared  that  he 
learned  more  eloquence  from  the  Book  of  Job  than  from 
all  others.  As  a  specimen  of  ancient  poetry,  and  a 
proof  of  primitive  civilization,  we  notice  the  following 
passages,  selected  from  among  others  of  equal  beauty: 
"Hast  thou  given  the  horse  streng-th?  Hast  thou 
clothed  his  neck  with  thunder?  Canst  thou  make 
him  afraid  as  a  grasshopper?  The  glory  of  his  nos- 
trils is  terrible.  The  quiver  rattleth  against  him,  the 
glittering  spear  and  shield.  He  swalloweth  the  ground 
with  fierceness  and  rage;  he  saith  among  the  trum- 
pets, ha!  ha!  He  smelleth  the  battle  afar,  the  thunder 
of  the  captains  and  the  shouting."  In  another  place, 
where  God  speaks  to  Job  from  the  whirlwind :  "  Hast 
thou  entered  into  the  springs  of  the  sea?  Hast  thou 
walked  in  search  of  the  depth?  Have  the  gates  of 
Death  been  open  to  thee,  or  hast  thou  seen  the  doors 
of  the  shadow  of  death?  Where  is  the  way  where 
light  dwelleth,  and  as  for  darkness,  where  is  the 
place  thereof?"  And  in  this  examination  it  ought  not 
to  be  forgotten,  that  poetry  and  the  fine  arts  are  far 
higher  proofe  of  the  power  of  the  human  intellect,  "of 
the  divinity  that  stirs  within  us,"  than  the  invention  of 
metal  type  or  the  manufacture  of  a  steam  engine.     In 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  27 

utility,  in  the  uses  of  wealth,  the  latter  may  outrank 
the  former;  as  proof  of  liigh  intellectual  culture,  they 
are  immeasurably  inferior.  Besides,  the  art  of  printing, 
of  which  we  boast  so  much,  was  known  centuries  before 
it  was  invented  in  Europe,  by  the  Chinese,  whose 
civilization  two  thousand  years  ago  was  more  perfect 
than  now. 

But  let  us  look  farther  down  the  line  of  sacred  his- 
tory. What  shall  we  say  of  the  Jewish  polity?  A 
people,  indeed,  not  exhibiting,  at  their  exodus  out  of 
Egypt,  where  they  had  long  been  slaves,  a  high  civiliza- 
tion, yet  possessing  a  Lawgiver  like  Moses — a  law,  in 
the  ten  commandments,  of  universal  application,  of  un- 
blemished purity  and  holiness,  from  which  nothing  can 
be  taken,  to  which  nothing  has  been  added  in  forty 
centuries  of  alledged  progress. 

We  have  not  time  to  look  at  the  details  of  their  mu- 
nicipal law ;  it  is  enough  to  say,  that  it  stands  confessed 
the  most  perfect  which  the  world  has  seen,  and  every 
jurist  knows,  or  ought  to  know,  that  every  modem  code 
has  borrowed,  more  or  less,  from  the  Jewish  economy. 
Of  all  forms  of  government,  it  has  been  thought  to  be 
the  most  perfect  "  The  form  of  the  Hebrew  govern- 
ment," says  Home,  "was  unquestionably  democratic; 
its  acting  head  admitted  of  a  change,  both  as  to  the 
name  and  nature  of  the  oflfice,  which  was  sometimes 
exercised  by  the  High  Priest,  sometimes  by  Judges  or 


28  PROGRESS    OP    CIVILIZATION 

Prophets,  and  there  were  times  when  they  were  with- 
out a  general  head.'*  Every  tribe  had  its  own  chief 
magistrate,  local  government,  and  judicial  tribunals, 
from  which  an  appeal  lay  to  the  Sanhedrim,  or  Supe- 
rior Council  of  the  nation.  There  is  a  resemblance, 
which  you  cannot  fail  to  notice,  in  the  Jewish  division 
of  tribes,  with  their  allotted  boundaries  and  local  juris- 
dictions, to  our  confederation  of  States.  If  we  claim,  as 
we  may,  that  our  form  of  government  prevents  the 
central  power  from  falling  to  pieces  with  its  own  weight, 
by  combining  the  advantages  and  security  of  a  local  or 
state  administration  over  a  comparatively  small  territory 
with  the  strength  of  a  great  Empire,  composed  of  nu- 
merous States,  joined  in  an  indissoluble  confederacy; 
we  have  only  to  add,  that  this  form  of  union  is  no 
novelty  of  our  own  time,  but  is  as  old  as  the  Jewish 
pohty,  and  had  its  prototype  in  the  world's  history 
three  thousand  years  since. 

Even  the  private  police  laws  of  the  Jews,  as  they  are 
termed  by  Michaelis,  contain  the  germs  of  universal  prin- 
ciples, and  many  of  their  regulations  have  succeeded  in 
the  practice  of  civilized  nations  to  this  day.  Prof  Pal- 
frey, of  Cambridge,  asserts,  that  there  are  four  leading 
objects  contemplated  in  that  minute  system  of  regula- 
tions, which  to  the  careless  reader  often  appears  perplex- 
ing and  useless.  1st.  To  preserve  the  people  from  idola- 
try.    2d.  To  promote  habits  of  cleanliness  by  minute 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  29 

health  laws.  3d.  To  establish  uniformity  of  customs — a 
thing  of  primary  importance  to  the  Jews.  4th.  To  make 
religious  obligation  a  subject  always  present  and  a  motive 
always  operative.  The  civil  code  of  the  Jews  maintained 
the  rights  of  parents  and  magistrates,  and  guarded  the 
rights  of  property  and  person;  secured  the  liberty  of  the 
citizen,  and  protected  the  slave  from  violence  and  abuse ; 
affording  a  shield  of  defence  to  this  degraded  class  far 
beyond  what  is  secured  by  any  of  the  Christian  Slave 
States  in  this  Union,  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
Jewish  system  punished  mayhem  and  other  personal  in- 
juries by  the  lex  talionis,  practically  the  most  effective  in 
the  prevention  of  personal  violence.  Time  will  not  allow 
us  to  review  at  large  this  splendid  monument  of  divine 
wisdom  and  ancient  jurisprudence  and  government,  yet 
we  ought  not  to  pass  over  in  silence  the  Jewish  law  of 
entails.  The  modem  laws  of  entails,  in  those  countries 
where  it  prevails,  is  designed  to  preserve  in  famiHes  enor- 
mous possessions,  and  enable  the  rich  and  the  noble  to 
lock  up  estate  after  estate  in  the  line  of  their  descendants, 
to  the  end  of  time,  or  the  overthrow  of  the  government 
The  Jewish  law  of  entail  was  aptly  devised  to  prevent  the 
undue  accumulation  of  property  by  leading  families  or 
grasping  speculators.  Its  provisions  were  as  follows: 
Every  Jewish  family  had  an  allotted  inheritance  in  the 
8<h1  of  Judea.  No  Jew  could  alienate  his  real  estate 
beyond  the   period  of  fifty  years,  when  it  returned  to 


30  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

his  family.  Every  purchaser  of  real  estate  bought  only 
a  lease  until  the  year  of  Jubilee,  when,  by  the  funda- 
mental law,  every  Jewish  family  entered  upon  their  ori- 
ginal possessions.  This  was  an  entail  not  designed  to 
aggrandize,  but  to  equalize  the  condition  of  the  people ; 
to  hold  up  a  powerful  motive  to  impoverished  and 
ruined  families  to  maintain  their  character  and  standing, 
seeing  their  inheritance  among  their  brethren  would  soon 
return  to  them. 

In  walled  towns  this  law  of  entail  did  not  prevail,  be- 
cause it  was  deemed  inconsistent  with  the  interests  of 
commerce,  and  real  estate  in  all  cities  was  exempted  from 
its  operations.  Should  it  be  said  that  this  remarkable 
law  of  entail  might  be  used  to  defraud  the  creditor  of 
his  just  dues,  it  may  be  repUed,  that  every  man,  in  giving 
his  neighbor  credit,  knew  the  exact  extent  of  his  security, 
viz :  the  possession  of  his  land  until  the  next  Jubilee,  and 
of  course  could  neither  be  disappointed  or  deceived  as  to 
the  value  and  extent  of  his  security.  Perhaps  no  law  of 
any  nation  was  ever  so  well  contrived  to  keep  up  the  tone 
and  spirit  of  an  entire  people,  to  prevent  pauperism,  de- 
gradation and  crime,  to  give  the  poorest  citizen  a  well  de- 
fined and  inalienable  interest  in  the  country  of  his  birth. 
To  say  the  least,  the  progress  of  the  law  of  entails  has 
been  downward,  and  a  comparison  of  the  English  with 
the  Jewish  law  will  show  the  immeasurable  superiority  of 
the  ancient  over  the  modem. 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  31 

To  return  for  a  moment  to  profane  histoiy, — it  may- 
be questioned  whether  the  code  of  Justinian,  as  a  system, 
does  not  exhibit  as  high  a  degree  of  civilization,  as  pro- 
found legal  acumen,  and  as  much  intellectual  develop- 
ment as  the  code  of  Napoleon,  while  the  common  law  of 
England  and  the  United  States,  admitting  as  it  does 
Christianity  for  its  basis,  excels  them  both  in  its  compre- 
hensiveness and  equity.  Should  it  be  replied  to  our  ar- 
gument, that,  while  civilization  and  government  have  dis- 
appeared before  the  progress  of  barbarism  in  the  ancient 
Empires,  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  savage  has  been 
civilized,  and  that  government  and  law  now  prevail  in 
Europe  where  savage  tribes  once  roamed — Tve  reply  as 
before,  that  the  civilization  of  the  Roman  Empire,  though 
partially  obscured,  was  never  lost ;  that  the  ci\^lzatlon  of 
the  barbarous  tribes  of  Europe  was  the  result  of  con- 
quest and  admixture,  and  was  revived  in  the  process  of 
decay  by  Christianity.  The  example  is  yet  wanting  in 
history  of  a  savage  race  emerging  into  civilization  by  their 
own  efforts.  Yet,  if  the  theory  of  progress  were  true, 
this  would  happen  universally  by  the  tendency  in  man 
toward  a  higher  and  more  perfect  state ;  for  it  is  folly  to 
talk  of  a  universal  law  or  principle  of  progress  which  has 
no  marks  of  a  universal  law  or  principle.  Will  the  ad- 
vocates of  this  theory  inform  us  how  much  increase  the 
law  of  progress  has  given  in  the  amount  of  civilization 
on  the  globe  in  thirty  centuries,  or,  in  other  words,  how 

Z^-y^^     Of  TBHR 

|TJiri7BRSIT7] 


32  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

much  larger  is  the  proportion  of  the  human  family 
which  now  enjoy  the  blessings  of  civilization,  than  in  the 
earliest  ages. 

History,  sacred  and  profane,  unite  in  their  testimony 

that   CIVILIZATION   WAS  THE  ORIGINAL  CONDITION  OF  MAN, 

and  that  every  barbarous  tribe  that  wanders  on  the  face 
of  the  earth — chasing  the  wild  beast  of  the  forest  in 
the  New  World,  or  herding  cattle  in  the  vast  Steppes 
of  Asia,  are  the  descendants  of  a  civiUzed  people,  main- 
taining government,  and  possessing  commerce,  agricul- 
ture, and  the  arts.  Nor  would  it  be  difficult  to  show,  did 
our  limits  permit^  that  the  corresponding  idea  of  pro- 
gress, maintained  by  the  New  Haven  Lecturer,  before 
alluded  to,  the  idea  that  the  spiritual  is  evolved  out  of  the 
physical  in  religion — is  false  in  fact.  Does  the  New  Tes- 
tament contain  a  purer  or  more  spiritual  system  than  the 
Old  ?  To  say  this  is  to  impeach  the  authority  of  both. 
Will  the  Book  of  Job  suffer  in  comparison  with  any  later 
portions  of  the  Bible,  in  power,  in  purity  of  morals,  or 
in  spirituality  ?  Was  the  religion  of  Enoch,  the  seventh 
from  Adam — the  faith  of  Abraham,  the  friend  of  God — 
and  the  patience  of  Job,  the  patriarch  of  Arabia — inferior 
to  subsequent  developments  of  the  religious  principle  ?  If 
it  were  so,  they  would  never  have  been  made  in  the  Sa- 
cred Scriptures  examples  for  the  Church  in  all  succeed- 
ing ages.  The  idea  of  the  development  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  out  of  the  physical,  contradicts  the  testimony 


AND    GOVBRNMBNT.  83 

and  impeaches  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  and  is  a  part 
of  that  philosophy  which  makes  civilization  and  govern- 
ment, morals  and  religion,  the  result  of  a  natural  law 
of  progression  and  development.  Even  the  supposed 
advance  of  language  from  a  mono-syllabic  state,  and  its 
gradual  progress  to  perfection  in  structure  and  gram- 
mar, is  asserted,  by  a  writer  on  Ethnography  of  high  au- 
thority, to  be  an  unfounded  supposition.  "From  this 
opinioa  I  must>"  says  our  author,  "totally  dissent;  for 
hitherto  the  experience  of  several  thousand  years  does 
not  afford  us  a  single  example  of  spontaneous  develop- 
ment in  any  speech.  At  whatever  period  we  meet  a 
language,  we  find  it  complete,  as  to  its  essential  quali- 
ties" With  this  agrees  Baron  Von  Humboldt,  a  master 
in  the  science  of  languages.  "Language,"  says  Dr. 
Wiseman,  "  in  its  essential  features,  is  as  perfect  in  the 
oldest  as  in  the  latest  writers;"  and  this  he  confirms  by 
examples  which  will  readily  occur  to  you,  by  a  compa- 
rison of  Homer  with  the  later  Greek  poets — the  earlier 
fragments  of  Hebrew  with  the  later ;  and  if  modem  ex- 
amples are  sought*  we  have  only  to  compare  Chaucer 
with  Wordsworth,  and  Dante  with  the  modern  ItaUan 
poeta  "  Were  there  any  such  thing  as  natural  develop- 
ment in  languages,"  says  our  author,  "surely  so  many 
ages  must  have  produced  it  in  the  instances  quoted ;  but 
so  far  from  this  being  the  case,  the  earlier  stages  of  a 
language  are  often  the  most  perfect.'*  How  singularly 
2 


94  PROGRESS   OF    CIVILIZATIOI? 

does  this  testimony  coincide  with  what  we  have  seen  to 
be  true  in  regard  to  civilization,  of  which  language  may- 
be termed  the  index. 

We  have  seen  that  the  earliest  nations  possessed  a 
high  civilization ;  that  in  most  departments  of  learning 
and  art  they  furnish  our  acknowledged  masters;  that 
where  the  most  debased  savages  now  roam  are  found 
the  vestiges  of  a  highly  cultivated  state — We  have  seen 
that  history  furnishes  us  with  no  evidence  of  a  people 
sunk  in  barbarism,  rising  unaided,  and  by  their  own 
efforts  and  natural  progress,  to  a  civiKzed  condition ;  and 
we  confidently  believe  that  no  one  fact  sustains  the 
dogma  of  natural  progress.  But  it  may  be  said,  to  what 
end  is  all  this?  "  Cui  bono?''  what  is  to  be  gained  by 
exposing  an  error,  harmless  in  its  nature  and  flattering  to 
our  self-esteem  ?  We  reply  that  it  is  not  a  harmless  error. 
The  theory  of  progress  contradicts  the  history  of  man — 
is  an  offshoot  of  an  Atheistic  philosophy,  and  tends  to  the 
most  injurious  results.  What  are  the  modern  social  sys- 
tems proposed  for  our  adoption,  but  exponents  of  this 
idea  of  progress?  Do  they  not  hold  up  man  as  the 
victim  of  a  social  order  which  he  received  from  antiquity, 
and  which  he  has  sadly  outgrown  in  his  progress  ?  Do 
not  Fourierism  and  Owenism,  and  other  kindred  sys- 
tems, attribute  all  the  poverty,  vice  and  misery  in  the 
world  to  the  present  existing  social  system,  rather  than 
to  human   depravity?     Do  they  not  promulgate   the 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  36 

idea  that  the  masses  are  victimized  by  holding  on  to 
worn-out  systems  of  civilization,  religion,  and  govern- 
ment? They  mean  this  or  they  mean  nothing,  by 
what  they  say;  and  what  is  this  but  a  practical  infer- 
ence from  the  law  of  progress,  which  places  one  gene- 
ration so  much  in  advance  of  another,  that  they  need 
new  systems  of  philosophy,  a  new  social  order,  a  new  di- 
vision of  property,  new  arrangements  of  labor,  and  a 
new  gospel?  Every  thing  must  be  revolutionized — 
every  landmark  removed — every  barrier  which  God  has 
reared  against  the  assaults  of  human  pride,  ferocity,  self- 
ishness and  lust,  broken  down.  They  invade  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  first  great  relation  of  divine  appointment, 
which  is  the  foundation  of  families  and  government,  and 
declare  that  marriage  is  both  a  monopoly  and  a  tyranny ; 
that  the  worst  passions  of  our  nature  would  cease  to  be 
criminal  if  they  were  indulged  in  without  restraint — 
they  think  with  David  Hume,  that  adultery  would  cease 
to  be  thought  a  crime  if  it  were  commonly  practised. 
Fourierism  aims  a  deadly  blow  at  religion,  law  and  civili- 
zation, under  the  pretence  of  progress — an  easy  progress 
indeed,  once  entered  upon,  leading  to  perdition — ^the 
*'  facilis  descensus  Avemi*'  of  the  Roman  poet  In  reli- 
gion this  idea  of  progress  is  sapping  the  foundation  of 
Christianity.  In  government  the  same  theory  is  pushing 
•iberty  to  the  very  verge  of  anarchy,  and  laying  the  axe 
of  destruction,  which  is  called,  for  the  occasion,  reform 


36  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

and  progress,  to  the  foundations  upon  which  rest  the 
sacred  rights  of  person  and  property. 

Principles  are  in  their  nature  immutable.  Truth  like 
God,  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  The 
nature  and  effects  of  virtue  and  vice  are  identical  in 
every  age.  Man  in  the  nineteenth  century  is  but  the 
same  moral,  rational,  accountable  being  that  he  was  in 
the  first — subject  to  the  same  law,  exhibiting  the  same 
intelligence,  needing  the  same  restraints,  exposed  to  the 
same  dangers,  governed  by  the  same  general  laws,  and 
bound  to  the  same  social  order  under  which  God  placed 
him  at  the  beginning.  These  pretended  reformations 
are  so  many  assaults  upon  virtue  and  religion — so  many 
attacks  upon  law  and  liberty — under  the  pretence  of  a 
larger  liberty,  which  is  only  licentiousness,  misrule  and 
anarchy.  Possibly  the  savage  hordes,  who  now  roam 
among  the  monuments  of  a  former  civilization,  have  been 
the  victims  of  the  same  quackery  which  at  this  day 
threatens  our  institutions.  Possibly  it  was  the  larger 
liberty  which  led  on  to  their  final  ruin.  The  case  of  na- 
tions in  this  respect  may  be  likened  to  that  of  the  unfor- 
tunate man,  who,  dying,  directed  the  following  epitaph  to 
be  inscribed  on  his  tomb :  "  I  was  well,  I  would  be  bet- 
ter ;  I  took  medicine,  and  here  I  am." 

The  people  of  the  United  States  have  more  to  fear 
from  the  new  gospels  of  pretended  reformers  and  the 
prescriptions  of  political  quacks,  than  from  all  other  infflc- 


AND    GOVERNMENT.  37 

tions.  He  is  the  true  friend  of  his  country  who  waras 
her  of  the  danger  of  "  pride,  fullness  of  bread,  and  abun- 
dance of  idleness" — who  points  out  in  the  dim  light  of 
the  past,  the  shoals  and  quicksands  upon  which  the 
mightiest  nations  have  made  shipwreck — who  seeks  to 
dispel  rather  than  inflate  that  pride  which  swells  with 
foolish  notions  of  pre-eminence — that  folly  which  is  confi- 
dent in  the  midst  of  dangers.  Whatever  advance  may- 
be made  in  extending  the  field  of  our  observation,  prin- 
ciples must  forever  remain  the  same — the  bases  of  civili- 
zation and  government,  of  morals  and  religion,  are  in  the 
nature  of  things  imchangeable.  Man  may  enlarge  his 
sphere  of  action,  but  he  cannot  add  to  the  intellectual 
powers  conferred  upon  him  by  his  Creator;  he  cannot 
change  the  social  order — for  marriage  and  the  family 
relation  are  of  divine  appomtment;  he  cannot  relieve 
himself  from  the  obligations  of  law  or  from  his  duty  to 
God ;  he  cannot  invent  new  gospels  for  successive  gene- 
rations. The  Earth-bom  may  war  with  the  Heaven- 
bom,  but  must  suffer  the  same  defeat  which  over- 
whelmed the  &bled  Titans  in  their  contest  with  the 
gods. 

The  theory  of  a  progressive  civilization  from  natural 
causes,  independent  of  the  supernatural  influences  of 
Christianity,  however  it  may  please  the  vanity  of  every 
age,  is  destitute  of  facts — a  baseless  fabric — an  unsup- 
ported hypothesis,  contradicted  by  every  page  of  human 


38  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION 

history.  It  is  an  offshoot  of  the  philosophy  which  ger- 
minates the  animal  from  the  vegetable,  and  perfects  man 
from  a  fish  or  a  monkey,  by  a  process  of  nature,  through 
cycles  of  time  which  make  the  Mosaic  chronology  but  a 
unit  in  an  infinite  series.  Indian  tables,  Chinese  calcu- 
lations, Egyptian  Zodiacs,  and  the  lava  of  volcanoes, 
have  been  dragooned  into  the  service  of  men,  who  have 
an  insane  passion  to  establish  an  enormous  age  for  the 
world.  The  detection  of  old  mistakes  have  only  made 
room  for  others — every  bursting  bubble  has  its  suc- 
cessors. 

Calculations  in  which  the  whole  question  at  issue  is 
assumed  are  constantly  made  and  put  forth  with  un- 
blushing impudence  as  conclusive  demonstrations.  Like 
Brydone's  estimate  of  the  age  of  the  world,  by  the 
assumed  time  it  takes  to  decompose  lava  to  soil,  which, 
unfortunately  for  infidelity,  was  demolished  by  the  proof 
which  Herculaneum  afibrded,  are  a  multitude  of  other 
theories  which  have  followed — fair  examples  of  philo- 
sophic speculation  and  the  anxiety  of  a  class  of  learned 
men  to  falsify  the  Sacred  Records — to  make  man  a  pro- 
gressive animal,  whose  powers  are  the  result  of  time, 
practice  and  experience — to  resolve  God  into  nature,  and 
creation  into  a  kind  of  blind  efibrt  of  a  blind  and  irra- 
tional power,  to  perfect  its  rude  beginnings.  If  any  man 
prefers  this  "darkening  of  counsel  by  words  without 
wisdom,"  to  the  consistent  and  authenticated  records  of 


Ain)    GOVERNMENT.  89 

the  Bible,  fortified  as  they  are  by  the  narration  of  pro- 
fane history,  and  by  the  conclusions  of  true  science,  he 
is,  of  course,  at  hberty  to  enjoy  his  opinion,  and  even  to 
indulge  in  the  fancy  of  the  author  of  the  "Vestiges  of 
Creation,"  that  Ufe  may  be  produced  by  artificial  means ; 
but  that  such  notions  have  any  basis  except  in  the  wishes 
and  imaginations  of  men,  who  can  never  be  at  ease  whUe 
God  is  worshiped,  we  deny ;  that  they  are  Ukely  to  exert 
a  permanent  influence,  we  beUeve  impossible.  Like  the 
ignis  fatuus,  these  theories  appear  and  disappear,  bewil- 
dering from  time  to  time  a  few  careless  travelers,  but  in- 
capable of  imitating  the  radiance  or  suppl3ring  the  place 
of  those  fixed  stars  which  guide  the  traveler  over  the 
trackless  wilderness  or  on  the  stormy  ocean ;  which  point 
always  and  unerringly  to  the  beginning  and  the  end,  and, 
while  revolving  in  their  vast  circuits,  making  melody  for 
the  ear  of  God,  do  not  disdain  to  adorn  our  night,  but 
cast  a  sure  light  upon  the  darkness  in  which,  rejecting 
them,  the  skeptic  wanders  forever  in  the  misty  regions 
of  speculation  and  doubt,  "  ever  learning  and  never  able 
to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  trutL" 


LECTURE  II. 


INFLUENCE  OP  CHRISTIANITY 

UPON 

CIVILIZATION. 


In  a  former  Lecture,  delivered  in  this  place  upon  the 
Progress  of  Civilization  and  Government,  the  attempt  was 
made  to  establish  the  position  that  civilization  was  the 
original  condition  of  mankind.  Nor  was  this  position 
sustained  upon  any  theoretical  basis — but  by  a  reference 
to  facts,  after  the  inductive  method,  from  historic  records, 
both  sacred  and  profane.  Perhaps  no  strenuous  objection 
would  have  been  made  to  this  as  a  simple  proposition, 
but  for  the  inference  which  was  suggested  from  the  pre- 
mises, to  wit,  the  fallacy  of  the  popular  idea  of  the  ad- 
Tance  of  man  by  a  natural  law  of  development  from  a 
rude  and  barbarous  state  to  the  perfection  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge,  and  the  attempt  to  show  that  civiliza- 
tion in  the  nineteenth  century  compared  with  the  civili- 
zation of  the  earliest  ages,  does  not  sustain  the  common 
2* 


42  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

notion  of  progress.  But  objections  of  various  kinds 
have  been  suggested  whicb  are  entitled  to  consideration, 
and  among  them  it  has  been  alledged  that  the  influence 
of  Christianity  upon  modern  civilization  has  not  been 
allowed  its  proper  weight.  Within  the  Umits  of  a  single 
lecture,  it  was,  of  course,  impossible  to  consider  all  the 
bearings  of  so  great  a  subject,  or  to  show  at  large  the 
influence  of  Christianity  upon  civilization  and  govern- 
ment— which,  indeed,  was  not  properly  the  topic  to 
which  our  attention  was  called  on  that  occasion.  The 
former  lecture  presented  the  question  of  Comparative 
Civilization;  it  is  the  design  of  this  to  show  the  con- 
nection between  Christianity  and  Civilization — in  doing 
which  it  will  be  necessary  to  look  into  the  history  of 
both,  and  perhaps  to  notice  again  some  positions  taken  in 
the  former  discussion,  which,  in  view  of  the  importance  of 
the  subject,  it  is  hoped  will  not  be  thought  impertinent 
Before,  however,  proceeding  to  the  examination  of  this 
question,  some  objections  ought  to  be  noticed  which  are 
of  a  genera]  character,  and  do  not  lie  within  the  line  of 
our  argument  this  evening.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
in  the  previous  discussion,  in  which  it  was  attempted  to 
be  shown  that  modern  civilization  does  not  possess  the 
superiority  claimed  for  it  over  the  ancient,  that  the 
speaker  was  hardly  in  earnest,  or,  at  least,  was  express- 
ing an  extreme  opinion,  which  had  nothing  more  to  re- 
commend it  than  its  novelty.     If  the  opinion  is  a  singu- 


UPON    CIVILIZATION.  43 

lar  one,  it  is  at  least  sincerely  entertained,  and  is  not 
to  be  met  by  the  ad  captandum  argument,  that  the 
general  sentiment  is  the  other  way — for  any  popular  fal- 
lacy may  be  thus  upheld  ia  the  face  of  argument  and 
demonstration.  Truth  is  not  determined  by  majorities ; 
the  heathen  maxim,  "  vox  populi,  vox  Dei,"  is  false,  as  are 
many  popular  opinions  which  are  maintained  by  the 
egotism  they  flatter,  not  only  without  proof  but  against 
it  Besides,  upon  the  question  of  comparative  civiliza- 
tion, the  verdict  of  the  learned  world  is  recorded,  in  seve- 
ral important  particulars,  in  favor  of  the  ancients — 
they  concede  to  their  predecessors  the  palm  in  regard  to 
most  of  the  great  departments  which  constitute  the 
indicia  of  civilization, — no  reasonably  well-informed  man 
will  deny  that  in  poetry,  oratory,  and  the  fine  arts,  the 
ancients  are  our  acknowledged  masters  and  models. 
Nor  is  the  doubtful  merit  of  novelty  due  to  this  discussion ; 
the  idea  of  a  natural  law  of  progression — the  notion  that 
many  of  the  great  principles  of  morality,  law  and  govern- 
ment, are  but  newly  discovered,  and  that  we  have  be- 
come as  gods,  in  comparison  with  former  generations, 
has  been  rebuked  by  world-famous  men,  and  exposed 
in  some  of  the  ablest  treatises  in  the  English  language. 
Said  that  profound  and  comprehensive  statesman  and 
philosopher,  Edmund  Burke,  speaking  upon  this  very 
subject:  "We  know  that  we  have  made  no  discoveries; 
and  we  think  that  no  discoveries  are  to  be  made  in  mo- 


44  INFLUENCE    OF   CHRI8TIANITT 

rality,  nor  many  in  the  great  principles  of  government, 
nor  in  the  ideas  of  liberty  which  were  understood  long 
before  we  were  born,  altogether  as  well  as  they  will  be 
after  the  grave  has  heaped  its  mould  upon  our  pre- 
sumption, and  the  silent  tomb  shall  have  imposed  its 
law  on  our  pert  loquacity." 

Can  it  be  possible,  says  one,  in  reply  to  our  posi- 
tion, that  we  are  retrograding?  As  though  the  bare 
query  were  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  whole  argument,  pro- 
bably an  ample  answer  for  the  popular  mind  in  every  age 
and  among  every  people,  in  whatever  stage  of  decay  or 
however  tottering  upon  the  verge  of  ruin;  and  yet  an 
answer  wholly  insufficient,  a  mere  petitio  principii,  op 
rather,  like  the  answer  of  the  Ephesian  populace  to  the 
preaching  of  the  Apostles,  who,  in  reply  to  the  Gospel 
which  brought  their  idolatry  into  contempt,  all  with  one 
voice  about  the  space  of  two  hours  cried  out,  "  Great  is 
Diana  of  the  Ephesians."  When  no  better  argument 
can  be  urged  against  a  proposition,  than  its  want  of 
popularity,  we  may  infer,  that  it  stands  upon  a  founda- 
tion which  can  only  be  assailed  by  appeals  to  pride, 
prejudice  or  passion. 

We  ventured  to  suggest,  on  a  former  occasion,  that 
many  popular  impressions  in  regard  to  the  degradation  of 
the  masses  under  the  old  civilizations  were  unfounded  in 
fact  Since  then,  Mr.  Gliddon,  our  former  Consul  in 
Egypt,  in  a  lecture  recently  delivered  in  the  city  of  New 


UPON    CIVILIZATION.  45 

York,  has  fully  confirmed  this  opinion.  The  conclusion  of 
Mr.  Gliddon's  lecture,  says  a  reporter,  was  an  eloquent  ex- 
position and  defence  of  the  objects  of  the  pyramids,  and 
a  refutation  of  the  charge  that  they  were  but  monuments 
of  oppression.  "  It  was  maintained  that  they  were  built 
by  a  free  and  civilized  race — monuments  of  art  and  power, 
intended  to  do  for  their  founders  wh^  books  'do  for  us  ; 
that  only  a  good  kmg^KMbv  law  eqjtitled  to  sepulture 
with^MiiflflflMH|^HKthe  population  of  Egypt 
didVEphJ^,  nipntl^^gfijl^  year  were  unemployed,  their 
labor  on  these  woi4re?w*s  of  great  benefit  to  the  people ; 
that  while  the  good  might  thus  be  rewarded,  the  guilty 
might  be  punished;  that  they  were  evidences  of  im- 
mense wealth  and  a  surplus  population — proud  monu- 
ments of  architectural  knowledge  and  wise  legislation." 

The  question  of  comparative  civilization  is  one  of  fact. 
The  world  is  at  least  six  thousand  years  old,  as  even  the 
opponents  of  Moses  admit;  and  of  forty  centuries  we 
have,  with  more  or  less  particularity,  the  history;  and 
this  from  two  independent  sources — the  one  professing  to 
reach  back  to  the  Creation,  and  to  be  written  by  the 
finger  of  God — the  other,  the  record  of  profane  history, 
confirming,  in  an  obscure  and  traditionary  way,  the  sa- 
cred narrative  of  the  origin  of  things;  and  for  the  last 
three  thousand  years,  when  the  stream  begins  to  run  with 
tolerable  clearness,  absolutely  corresponding  with  it  in  all 
the  particulars  where  they  testify  of  the  same  things. 


46  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

When  we  contrast  the  civilization  of  ancient  and  modern 
times,  the  subject  is  not  to  be  disposed  of  with  a  laugh, 
or  by  advancing  a  theory  of  progress.     It  is  not  to  be 
decided  by  a  presumption  of  superiority,  or  by  appeals  to 
popular  opinion,  but  by  a  rigid  examination  of  facts — 
by  an  impartial  comparison  of  claims — by  contrasting 
the  monuments  of  intellectual  development — of  govern- 
ment, law  and  civihzation,  of  one  age,  with  those  of  an- 
other, and  weighing  the  sum  of  the  testimonyjfe-  the  equal 
balances  of  truth.     It  is  not  an  obscure  and  perplexed 
question,  where  we  are  compelled  to  resoi-t  to  first  princi- 
ples or  to  receive  equivocal  or  secondary  testimony ;  we 
are  not  even  confined  to  the  written  records  of  which  we 
have  spoken.     The  memorials  of  the  ancient  generations 
of  our  race  are  graven  on  the  everlasting  rocks,  and  writ- 
ten with  a  pen  of  iron  on  the  imperishable  monuments 
by  which  time  marks  the  flight  of  centuries.     Out  of 
the  heaps  of  rubbish,  which  have  long  covered  Babylon 
the  magnificent  from  all  inspection,  have  been  brought, 
at  length,  forms  of  unrivalled  beauty,  to  bear  testimony 
to  the  civihzation  of   Chaldea.     An  Assyrian  Museum 
has  the  past   year  been  founded  in  the  most  pohshed 
capitol  of  Europe,  and  voices  from  the  Euphrates  are 
heard  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine,  which,  silent  since  the 
days  of  Nimrod,  have  now  broken  the  repose  of  ages. 
From   the   ancient   Nineveh   the   winged   lions  of   her 
exquisite  sculpture  have  unfolded  their  long-closed  wings, 


UPON    CIVILIZATION.  47 

and  gaze  scornfully  down  on  Venice  and  the  statuary  of 
Saint  Mark.  On  the  plain  of  the  Nile  the  temples  and 
pjramids  of  Egypt  yet  lift  their  undiminished  fronts  to 
heaven  in  solitary  grandeur,  proclaiming  a  civilization  not 
only  anterior,  but  superior,  to  that  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
Out  of  the  Catacombs  of  the  Nile  come  voices  from  the 
solemn  chambers  of  the  dead,  bearing  witness  to  long- 
lost  arts,  by  which  human  dust  was  immortalized — of  a 
splendor  of  sepulture  never  since  imitated — of  genera- 
tions of  the  dead — untouched  by  decay — unaltered  by 
the  tomb.  In  what  place  is  there  wanting  memorials 
and  witnesses  of  the  past  ?  On  the  mountains  of  Cau- 
casus— in  the  sculptured  caverns  of  Hindoostan — from 
Tadmor  of  the  desert — from  the  plain  of  Asia,  the  cradle 
of  the  race — from  the  dark  forests  of  the  new  world, 
looking  down  upon  the  mysterious  statuary  of  South 
America,  we  find  the  witnesses  of  the  power,  the  wealth, 
and  the  civilization  of  the  primitive  generations  of  men. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  hve  in  the  present  We  are 
ourselves  witnesses  of  the  triumphs  of  the  human  intellect 
in  the  nineteenth  century ;  we  aid  in  erecting  the  monu- 
ments which  are  to  tell  the  story  of  our  civilization  to 
future  generations  ;  we  know  the  inventions  by  which 
the  modems  have  compelled  the  elemental  Titians  to  do 
their  will  With  what  candor  we  may,  we  must  decide 
whether  there  is  any  thing  to  warrant  the  high  tone  of 
superiority  we   have  assumed — whether  there  is  rea- 


48  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

sonable  ground  for  us  to  conclude  that  we  are  the  giants 
and  the  ancients  the  dwarfs,  and  that  man  has  come  from 
a  base  and  earthly  origin — the  miserable  progeny  of  an 
ape  or  a  fish — through  ages  of  progress,  now  for  the  first 
time,  to  the  fullness  of  his  manhood  and  the  perfection 
of  his  wisdom.  And  so  of  the  connection  between 
Christianity,  Civilization,  and  Government,  we  have  no 
occasion  to  theorize.  The  field  of  observation  is  before 
us.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  speculation  or  hypo- 
thesis. We  are  to  collect  and  compare  facts,  upon  the 
rigid  method  of  the  inductive  philosophy ;  we  are  to  hear 
the  testimony  from  the  voices  that  broke  the  stillness  of 
the  desert  from  the  rugged  top  of  Sinai,  when  God 
spake,  amid  blackness,  and  darkness,  and  tempest,  to  the 
still  small  voice  of  Him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake, 
but  of  whom  it  was  predicted,  that  He  should  neither 
strive  nor  cry  nor  lift  up  his  voice  in  the  streets — whose 
word  distills  as  the  midnight  dews,  falling  without  notice, 
yet  gratefully,  upon  the  parched  and  thirsty  earth.  Here, 
too,  we  must  go  back  to  the  beginning ;  for  Christianity 
is  but  an  extension  of  the  system  which  commenced  with 
the  creation  of  man — the  continuation  of  an  economy  as 
old  as  time.  To  show  the  influence  of  Christianity  upon 
civilization  and  government,  we  must  go  to  the  world 
before  the  Flood,  and  trace  onward  and  downward,  his- 
torically, the  course  of  human  affairs.  The  creation  of 
man,  in  the  perfection  of  his  nature  and  faculties,  will 


UPON    CIVILIZATION.  49 

be  admitted  to  be  the  testimony  of  sacred  history,  even 
by  those  who  dispute  its  authority.  It  will  also  be  con- 
ceded by  all,  that  the  same  record  bears  unequivocal 
evidence  of  the  existence  of  a  universal  civilization  at  the 
time  of  the  founding  of  Babylon.  This  is  the  language 
of  the  Inspired  Historian:  Gen.  xi.  1,  4.  "And  the 
whole  earth  was  of  one  language  and  one  speech ;  and 
it  came  to  pass  as  they  journeyed  from  the  East  they 
found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar,  and  they  dwelt  there ; 
and  they  said  one  to  another,  go  to,  let  us  make  brick 
and  bum  them  thoroughly ;  and  they  had  brick  for  stone, 
and  slime  had  they  for  mortar;  and  they  said,  go  to,  let 
us  build  us  a  city  and  a  tower  whose  top  may  reach 
unto  heaven ;  and  let  us  make  a  name,  lest  we  be  scat- 
tered abroad  upon  the  fece  of  the  whole  earth."  From 
this  place  as  a  common  centre,  God  scattered  them  by  a 
miraculous  interposition,  which  account  has  been  shown, 
in  the  face  of  infidel  scorn,  by  the  ablest  Ethnographers 
of  the  age,  to  agree  with  the  present  state  of  language, 
and  to  be  the  only  reasonable  explanation  of  its  primary 
diversities.  That  language  was  a  divine  gift,  and  pos- 
sessed originally  in  its  perfection,  is  the  testimony  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures — for  God  commanded  Adam  to  name 
an  the  inferior  creatures :  "  And  whatsoever,"  says  the 
Inspired  Historian,  "  Adam  called  every  living  creature, 
that  was  the  name  thereof"  A  mere  child,  or  one  im- 
perfectly possessed  of  language,  coidd  not  have  done  this. 


50  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

Hence  we  think  that  language,  both  spoken  and  written, 
was  the  immediate  gift  of  God.  A  gTeat  controversy 
has  been  maintained  by  learned  men  on  this  subject.  It 
has  been  urged  by  Simon,  Condillac,  and  Dr.  Adam 
Smith,  that  language  was  progressive — an  invention 
gTadually  perfected,  which  agTees  with  the  theory  of  a 
progressive  civilization — ^while  Delaney,  Warburton,  and 
Dr.  Stanhope  Smith,  contend  that  language  was  matter 
of  direct  and  special  revelation ;  and  urge  many  conside- 
rations, independent  of  the  Scriptures,  to  prove  that 
language  written  and  spoken,  was  originally  perfect  and 
complete. 

It  is  enough  for  our  purpose,  to  show  that  this  is  the 
testimony  of  the  sacred  records  which  establish,  as  far  as 
theu*  authority  can  do  so,  the  fact  of  the  original  dignity 
and  perfection  of  our  race.  After  the  apostacy,  man, 
fallen  from  the  moral  image  of  his  Creator,  yet  retained 
the  intellectual  powers  and  faculties  conferred  upon  him ; 
and  notices  of  existing  civilization  immediately  subsequent 
to  the  fall,  among  the  posterity  of  Cain,  are  foimd  in 
Genesis,  where  we  learn  that  they  cultivated  music  and 
were  artificers  in  the  metals,  which  is  inconsistent  with 
the  idea  of  a  primitive  barbarism.  Christianity  had  its  de- 
velopment in  the  world  before  the  flood ;  and  the  Gospel 
promise  was  uttered  in  the  ears  of  our  first  parents,  as 
they  fled  from  Eden  by  the  light  of  the  flaming  sword  of 
the  Cherubim  waving  against  their  re-entrance  to  Paradise. 


UPON    GOVERNMENT.  51 

Abel,  Seth,  Enocli  and  Noah  were  preachers  of  right- 
eousness. Now,  in  the  first  dawn  of  Christianity  upon 
the  darkness  of  the  apostacy,  we  discover,  what  we  shall 
have  occasion  more  fully  to  see  as  we  pass  down  the  tide 
of  time,  that  true  religion  was  not  friendly  to  the  ex- 
cessive civihzation  and  refinement,  to  the  lust  of  power 
and  greatness  which  began  immediately  to  characterize 
our  fallen  race,  who  would  be  as  gods  the  moment  they 
lost  the  moral  image  of  the  true  God.  We  think  we 
shall  be  able  to  maintain  by  the  facts  of  History,  as  well 
as  the  recorded  principles  of  Christianity,  that  the  Gospel 
is  not  favorable  to  the  kind  of  civilization  which  has  ever 
characterized  the  great  States  of  ancient  and  modern 
times,  and  which  has  hastened  the  downfall  of  Empires, 
as  they  have  been  filled  with  "  pride,  fullness  of  bread, 
and  abundance  of  idleness."  We  think  it  may  be  shown 
that  the  popular  idea  that  Christianity  induces  the  kind 
of  civihzation  of  which  men  in  general  are  ambitious,  or 
has  been  the  developing  principle  of  the  manufacturing 
and  commercial  spirit  of  the  age,  is  a  hbel  on  the  Gospel, 
which  has  always  taught  men  moderation  in  their  desires, 
simplicity  in  their  habits,  economy  in  their  expenditures ; 
restraining  their  appetites  for  luxury  and  wealth,  by  set- 
ting before  them  the  hopes  of  another  and  better  fife, 
and  teaching  them  that  they  are  pilgrims  and  stran- 
gers, who  have  no  abiding  place  or  continuing  city  in 
time. 


62  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

It  is  a  great  delusion,  that  excessive  devotion  to  the 
fine  arts,  the  love  of  pomp  and  magnificence,  the  lust  of 
wealth  and  dominion,  and  the  subservience  of  the  ele- 
ments to  the  ends  of  accumulation,  are  the  fruits  of 
Christianity.  This  wisdom  is  not  from  above;  it  is  in- 
deed a  kind  of  wisdom,  but  it  is  of  the  earth,  earthy. 
Christianity  teaches  a  nobler  civifization — a  cultivation  of 
the  moral  nature — the  restoration  of  the  religious  prin- 
ciple; it  opens  the  avenues  of  goodness,  rather  than 
greatness,  to  human  ambition ;  it  treats  the  love  of  money 
as  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  would  employ  the  wealth  with 
which  we  float  our  navies,  send  forth  our  armies,  build 
our  palaces,  and  buy  our  paintings  and  sculpture,  to  open 
the  prison  doors,  to  preach  dehverance  to  the  captive, 
and  restore  the  blessings  of  a  Christian  and  rural  civili- 
zation to  those  who  dwell  in  darkness.  To  make  Chris- 
tianity the  great  agent  in  European  or  American  civifi- 
zation, is  a  slander  upon  the  Gospel,  like  that  which 
infidels  cast  upon  the  Church,  when  they  make  her  bear 
the  reproach  of  all  the  crimes,  the  wars,  and  the  mas- 
sacres which  have  been'perpetrated  in  the  name  of  refi- 
gion.  But  this  idea  will  be  more  fully  developed  as  we 
pass  along  in  the  fine  of  our  testimony.  From  the  brief 
record  of  the  world  before  the  flood,  we  learn  that  it  was 
not  until  the  corruption  of  true  refigion,  that  the  mingled 
offspring  of  the  sons  of  God  and  the  daughters  of  men, 
of  the  church  and  world,  became  mighty  men  and  men 


UPON    CiVlLIZATIOlf.  63 

of  renown.  It  contains,  we  think,  no  doubtful  intimation 
that  while  the  Church  was  pure,  the  manners  of  those 
under  her  influence  were  primitive  and  simple — their 
desires  moderate — their  civilization  of  such  a  character  as 
Grospel  precepts  would  be  likely  to  induce — every  man 
dwelling  under  his  own  \ine  and  fig-tree,  and  content 
\vith  such  things  as  he  had,  living  in  peace  and  charity 
with  all,  and  envious  of  none — possessing  the  comforts  and 
perhaps  some  of  the  elegancies  of  Ufe — but  all  in  mode- 
ration. On  the  other  hand,  when  the  barriers  of  Chris- 
tianity were  broken  down,  when  worldly  principles  and 
policy  prevailed  in  the  Church,  then  avarice,  ambition, 
the  lust  of  wealth,  and  the  pride  of  life,  and  the  desire 
of  conquest,  took  possession  of  the  heart;  and  warriors 
and  heroes  shine  in  history,  the  tyrants  and  butchers  of 
the  age,  who  are  styled,  in  the  brief  narrative,  "  giants 
of  old,  men  of  renown ;"  and  thus,  at  last,  the  earth  was 
filled  with  violence,  and  the  waters  of  the  deluge  swept 
away  the  monuments  of  the  primitive  civilization. 

We  are  too  much  in  the  habit  of  confounding  intel- 
lectual and  moral  development,  and  of  making  the  one 
dependent  upon  the  other.  We  overlook  the  fact  that  a 
fiend  may  possess  the  ability  of  a  seraph,  and  that  intel- 
lectual greatness  may  co-exist  with  deep  moral  debase- 
ment The  fallen  angels  are  still  styled  principalities  and 
powers;  and  men  may  possess  an  intellectual  grandeur 
without  religious  principle  or  moral  cultivation.     But  let 


'V^  OF  THr"^ 

IJHri7ERSJT7l 


64  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

US  look  at  the  world  after  the  flood.  We  find  them, 
according  to  the  scripture  narrative,  building  a  capital  city 
to  concentrate  their  power  and  their  civilization,  contemn- 
ing the  simplicity  of  the  patriarchal  government  and  agri- 
cultural hfe,  just  at  the  period  when  they  were  ready  to 
rebel  again  against  the  authority  of  God,  who  had  com- 
manded them  to  divide  and  possess  the  earth,  and  to  defy 
his  power  by  a  vain  effort  to  reach  the  heavens  with  their 
towers,  the  tradition  of  which  is  found  in  pagan  mytho- 
logy. From  this  great  centre  of  civilization,  God  scat- 
tered them  over  the  earth ;  and  here  we  have  an  expla- 
nation of  the  subsequent  history  of  mankind,  and  an 
answer  to  the  most  plausible  argument  ever  urged  in 
favor  of  a  progressive  civilization.  It  is  triumphantly 
asked  if  Greece  and  Rome,  and  other  nations,  did  not 
progress  from  an  inferior  civilization ;  and  hence  it  is  in- 
ferred that  civilization  is  the  result  of  a  law  of  progress. 
Now  we  shall  find  that  Profane  History  fully  confirms 
the  narration  of  Sacred  Scripture,  showing  that  civiliza- 
tion was  colonized,  not  created.  We  have  seen  that  pro- 
fane and  sacred  history  agree  in  making  Babylon  the 
first  seat  of  Empire — the  monuments  at  this  moment 
exhibiting  in  Paris  show  that  this  civilization  was  of 
the  highest  order.*     We  learn  that  the  dispersion  took 

*  Since  this  Lecture  was  delivered,  the  researches  of  Layard  under  the 
patronage  of  the  English  government,  have  thrown  new  light  on  the  subject 
of  Assyrian  Antiquities,  and  have  thus  justified  the  anticipations  suggested 
by  the  first  specimens  exhibited  in  Europe. 


UPON    CIVILIZATION.  65 

place  at  this  point  from  sacred  records,  and  from  profane 
history  we  perceive  the  earliest  and  most  renowned 
nations  in  the  vicinity  of  Babylon.  Those  who  removed 
to  a  great  distance,  scattering  over  the  face  of  the  earth, 
fell  into  barbarism,  from  which  they  have  never  been 
recovered,  and  never  can  be,  but  by  foreign  aid  and  the 
influence  of  Christianity,  or  the  same  revelation  which 
Gbd  gave  to  man  at  the  beginning  with  a  written  lan- 
guage, and  civilization — all  of  which  they  have  lost  To 
them  Christianity  restores  the  original  blessings  of  reli- 
gion, language  and  ci\T[lization ;  and  it  is  a  fact  worthy 
of  notice,  that  this  office  belongs  to  her  alone — as 
the  instance  cannot  be  found  of  a  barbarous  people 
recovered,  save  by  the  Grospel,  which  carries  back  in  its 
train  the  original  gifts  divinely  bestowed  upon  men,  hope- 
lessly and  irrecoverably  lost,  save  by  this  divine  instru- 
mentality, to  more  than  half  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe. 
Here,  we  apprehend,  is  the  origin  of  barbarism.  Colo- 
nies go  out  from  the  centre  of  civilization;  at  a  great 
distance,  they  encounter  the  hardships  incident  to  all 
emigration;  they  resort  to  the  chase  for  subsistence; 
they  gradually  lose  the  knowledge  of  the  arts  they 
brought  with  them ;  they  have  no  intercourse  with  the 
people  from  whom  they  emigrated ;  they  continue  to  sink 
lower  and  lower  in  ignorance,  until  they  become  absolute 
barbarians,  enveloped  in  gross  ignorance,  without  a  re- 
membrance of  their  former  civilization. 


56  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

Nor  ought  we  to  overlook  the  fact  that  there  is  a  ten- 
dency to  degeneration  in  man,  from  the  corruption  of  his 
moral  nature,  which,  while  it  does  not  necessarily  pre- 
vent his  intellectual  development,  yet  affects  his  social 
condition,  and,  in  the  absence  of  stimulating  causes  to  in- 
dustry and  effort,  drags  him  down  to  barbarism.  Re- 
move a  people  at  a  great  distance  from  the  centre  of 
civiHzation — from  the  stimulus  of  competition  and  the  in- 
fluence of  example — and  how  soon  will  they  come  to  de- 
light in  the  wild  independence  of  savage  life.  Remove 
the  outward  pressure  of  industry — the  necessity  of  la- 
bor— the  rivalry  of  neighboring  states — the  reproach  of  a 
better  condition — the  example  of  greater  wealth,  security 
and  comfort — exciting  them  to  competition — and  how 
soon  will  any  colony,  acting  under  the  tendencies  of  hu- 
man selfishness  and  indolence,  without  the  motives  which 
are  drawn  from  a  pure  faith,  sink  into  barbarism,  from 
which  their  redemption  by  any  mere  human  instru- 
mentality is  hopeless.  To  overlook  the  tendency  to  de- 
terioration, is  to  overlook  the  testimony  of  all  experience* 
A  modern  historian,  Alison,  alledges,  that  the  depravity 
of  human  nature,  is  an  element  that  cannot  be  overlooked 
in  the  history  of  nations ;  and  it  is  the  remark  of  a  politi- 
cal writer,  that  the  mistakes  of  statesmen,  and  the  blun- 
ders of  theorists  are  attributable  mainly  to  the  leaving  this 
element  out  of  their  calculations.  The  theory  of  human 
perfectibility  of  course  denies  this  tendency,  and  omits 


UPON    CHM8TIANITT.  57 

all  consideration  of  its  commanding  influences,  and  wholly 
disregards  or  denies  the  testimony  of  the  scriptures  of 
man's  moral  depravity,  though  corroborated  by  every 
page  of  human  history.  The  dreamers  of  our  time  who 
would  break  down  the  barriers  of  government  and  the 
social  system,  overlook  in  like  manner  this  feature  of  hu- 
man character,  and  charge  upon  those  restraining  influ- 
ences of  divine  appointment,  which  hold  in  check  the  ele- 
ments of  destruction,  the  evils  which,  without  them,  would 
blaze  out  in  a  flame  of  consuming  fire.  Even  the  most 
savage  nations  have  retained,  (and  we  think  it  a  proof  of 
their  original  civilization,)  a  form  of  government,  and  the 
family  and  social  relations  which  are  necessary  to  the  ex- 
istence of  society  in  its  rudest  forms.  They  have  lost  their 
civilization  under  certain  adverse  influences;  but  they 
have  never  been  able  to  throw  off"  entirely  the  barriers 
which  God  at  the  beginning  erected  against  the  dissolu- 
tion of  society,  from  the  downward  tendency  of  human 
selfishness  and  passion  which,  unrestrained,  would  de- 
populate the  world. 

Take  a  map  of  the  ancient  world  and  you  will  see  that 
the  barbarous  nations  are  those,  in  general,  farthest  re- 
moved from  the  centre  of  civiUzatioh,  while  all  the  great 
seats  of  power  and  art  are  in  the  vicinage  of  Babylon. 

Put  your  finger  on  the  map  at  Babylon  and  look  to 
the  left,  or  westwardly,  and  on  nearly  the  same  parallel 
of  latitude,  and  but  a  few  himdred  miles  distant  you  will 
3 


68  PROGRESS    OF   CHRISTIANITY 

find  Eg}^pt ;  a  little  to  the  north  of  Egypt,  and  on  the  west 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean  you  will  see  the  ancient  Phoe- 
nicia, and  Tyre,  its  capital ;  between  the  two,  Canaan  or 
Palestine.  Look  to  the  right  from  Babylon  on  the  map,  or 
eastwardly,  and  you  find  Persia  and  Hindoostan.  Near 
at  hand  and  a  little  to  the  north  is  Nineveh,  that  ancient 
city,  while  Asia  Mnor,  one  of  the  earliest  settled  portions 
of  the  globe,  is  a  little  to  the  north-west.  Now,  is  it  not 
obvious  that  the  colonies  who  first  settled  Egypt,  Phoeni- 
cia and  Pei-sia,  could  easily  transfer  the  civilization  of 
Babylon  to  these  new  seats  of  Empire  ?  and  though  at 
first,  in  the  difficulties  of  a  new  settlement  and  colony^ 
always,  says  one,  nursed  at  the  shaggy  breast  of  difficulty, 
they  might  neglect  the  fine  arts  and  other  indicia  of  a 
high  civilization,  and  so  have  the  appearance  for  a  time 
of  a  semi-civilized  people,  yet  so  soon  as  they  had  ad- 
vanced in  wealth,  sending  back  for  the  civilization  they 
left  behind  them,  and  which  they  had  but  partially  lost, 
owing  to  the  pressure  of  external  circumstances.  This 
will  be  farther  seen  by  examining  the  testimony  of  pro- 
fane history,  and  following  the  course  of  civilization  on 
the  map  of  the  ancient  world. 

Egypt  and  Phoenicia  have  at  leng-th  become  new 
centres  of  civilization — the  one  emulating  the  magnificence 
of  Babylon  in  her  Pyramids  and  Temples,  the  other  rival- 
ing her  in  wealth  and  vexing  the  Mediterranean  with  her 
merchantmen — for  the  merchants  of  Tyre  were  Princes. 


UPON   CIVILIZATION.  5d 

From  Egypt  and  Phcenicia  civilization  travels  with  colo- 
nies to  Carthage  on  the  African  side  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  to  Greece  on  the  European  side  of  the  same  sea,  and 
thence  westwardly,  in  process  of  time,  to  Rome — the  his- 
tory of  which  will  more  fully  illustrate  our  position.  A 
colony  from  Troy  enter  Italy.  Rome  is  founded.  A 
warlike  and  hardy  people,  not  ignorant  of  civilization,  but 
struggling  for  a  time  for  existence,  and  afterwards  for  imi- 
versal  empire ;  yet  as  soon  as  circumstances  admitted,  we 
find  the  Romans  sending  their  young  men  to  Greece  for 
education,  and  transferring  the  civilization  of  Athens  to 
the  banks  of  the  Tiber — just  as  our  own  forefathers,  colo- 
nizing the  inhospitable  Atlantic  coast,  presented  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  half  barbarous  people,  living  in  log  huts, 
and  with  but  few  of  the  comforts,  and  none  of  the  elegan- 
cies of  life — ^yet,  so  soon  as  the  forest  was  leveled,  the 
Indian  tribes  driven  back,  and  the  means  of  living  se- 
cured, transferring  the  civilization  of  England  to  the 
barbarous  shores  of  North  America. 

This,  we  believe,  is  the  true  history  of  civilization, 
shown  both  from  profane  and  sacred  records;  and  it 
abundantly  proves  that  it  has  not  been  created — has  re- 
sulted from  no  law  of  progress — but  has  journeyed  from 
a  common  centre,  to  which  in  every  instance  may  be 
traced  historically,  all  the  civilization  on  the  globe  at  this 
day.  A  reference  to  the  map  will  show  that  ancient 
civilization  was  mainly  confined  to  the  temperate  zone— 


60  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

was  included  in  a  few  parallels  of  latitude — passing  west- 
ward from  Babylon  by  easy  stages  and  upon  accessible 
routes,  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  sea,  and 
eastward  from  the  same  point,  and  generally  along  the 
same  parallels,  to  Persia,  to  Hindoostan  and  China ;  while 
a  similar  reference  to  the  map  and  to  profane  history  will 
show  that,  as  a  general  rule,  the  nations  who  first  fell  into 
barbarism — as  the  Scythians  at  the  north,  and  the  Afri- 
can race  at  the  south — were  at  a  distance  from  the  centres 
of  civilization,  and  were  deprived  by  natural  barriers  of 
the  constant  intercourse  which  led  civilization  from  Baby- 
lon to  Egypt — from  Egypt  to  Phoenicia — from  Phoenicia 
to  Greece — from  Greece  to  Rome — from  Rome  over  all 
Europe — and  from  thence  to  the  New  World.  The  ap- 
parent progress  of  nations  then,  is  not  a  real  one ;  it  is  but 
a  transfer — a  colonization  of  civilization ;  and  the  instance, 
we  contend,  is  wanting  of  a  people  whose  civilization  is 
indigenom.  You  can,  every  where,  trace  the  tree  to  the 
parent  stock — the  stream  to  the  fountain;  and  we  are 
driven  back  step  by  step  to  Babylon  and  Eden,  and  to 
the  truth  that  civilization  was  the  original  condition  of 
man.  And  we  have  before  attempted  to  show,  that  its 
early  monuments  are  fully  equal,  if  not  superior  to  those 
of  modern  times ;  and  that  the  idea  of  a  law  of  develop- 
ment and  progress  from  barbarism  to  civilization  is  against 
all  testimony,  both  of  sacred  and  profane  history,  and  is 
simply  a  popular  delusion. 


UPON   CIVILIZATION.  61 

The  importance  of  this  subject  will  excuse  this  appa- 
rent digression  from  the  main  topic — for  the  issue  in  the 
whole  discussion  lies  in  the  history  of  ci\ilization — and  in 
in  this  question,  whether  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  has  sprung 
up  by  a  law  of  development  and  progress,  and  grown 
out  of  infancy  and  barbarism,  or  whether  it  be  the  ori- 
ginal condition  of  man — a  gift  from  his  Creator — which, 
m  the  divine  purpose,  under  certain  favorable  circum- 
stances, has  been  preserved  and  perpetuated — transferred 
and  colonized — while,  under  other  and  unfavorable  con- 
ditions, it  has  been  lost  by  that  large  portion  of  mankind 
who  are  confessedly  barbarians.  Now  we  do  not  care  in 
this  matter  to  stand  upon  the  authority  of  Revelation; 
we  would  simply  for  this  purpose  and  for  the  present, 
prefer  to  use  the  sacred  records  as  though  they  had  been 
recently  discovered  and  stood  upon  the  same  ground 
with  profane  history,  and  to  any  candid  mind  the  question 
might  be  safely  submitted:  are  not  these  new-found 
records  abundantly  confirmed  by  the  traditions  of  all 
nations — by  the  map  of  the  world — ^by  the  ancient  monu- 
ments of  civilization  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  earth, 
and  by  all  the  known  records  of  our  race  ?  The  question 
of  comparative  civilization  is  not  exactly  identical  with 
the  one  under  consideration,  and  must  rest,  as  we  have 
Been,  upon  the  testimony  in  the  case ;  yet  it  may  be 
safely  affirmed  upon  general  principles,  that  if  man  came* 
in  his  intellectual  perfection,  from  the  hands  of  God, 


62  INFLUENCI    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

endowed  with  reason  and  understanding — receiving  the 
gift  of  language,  civilization,  and  the  arts,  from  his  Ma- 
ker— then  the  assumption  that  he  is  in  the  process  of  an 
indefinite  progression,  is  false,  in  regard  to  the  species, 
whatever  may  be  true  of  the  individual 

To  return  to  the  influence  of  Christianity  upon  civili- 
zation— we  notice  that  the  first  example  after  the  flood 
of  the  direct  influence  of  religion  upon  ci^dHzation  and 
government,  is  found  in  the  history  of  the  Hebrews. 
We  have  the  laws  and  the  literature  of  this  remarkable 
people.  The  earliest  profane  historians  speak  of  Moses 
as  the  law-giver  of  the  Jews,  and  it  has  been  thought 
that  some  of  the  principles  of  then*  jurisprudence  were 
borrowed  by  Pagan  legislators.  It  has  already  been  ob- 
served that  Christianity  is  but  the  continuance  in  another 
form  of  the  same  economy  which  God  gave  to  Moses, 
and  hence  the  examination  of  the  influence  of  Judaism 
upon  the  Hebrews  is  pertinent  to  our  inquiry.  The 
Israelites  were  of  course  familiar  with  the  civilization  of 
Egypt,  where  they  were  in  bondage  four  hundred  years ; 
yet  tlie  civilization,  induced  by  the  economy  of  Moses, 
was  of  a  very  different  character.  The  government  and 
social  condition  of  the  Hebrews  were  far  superior  to 
those  of  Egypt,  but  their  civilization,  upon  the  ordinary 
standard  of  judgment,  would  be  thought  inferior.  And 
here,  perhaps,  in  this  early  period  of  history,  we  may  dis- 
cover the  true  influence  of  Christianity  upon  civilization 


UPON    CIVILIZATION.  63 

and  government  While  it  secures  the  rights  of  person 
and  property,  upon  the  great  principles  of  the  second 
table  o(  the  law ;  while  it  promotes  freedom  in  govern- 
ment, purity  in  legislation,  and  equity  in  jurisprudence ; 
while  it  serves  to  scatter  the  religious  darkness  arising 
from  ignorance  and  superstition,  and  to  elevate  the  lower 
classes,  it  by  no  means  tends  to  what  I  have  ventured 
to  call  an  ezc^sive  civilization.  We'  find  the  government 
and  jurisprudence  of  the  Hebrews  admirable  models  in 
every  age  and  to  every  people.  We  find  their  social 
condition  vastly  in  advance  of  the  surrounding  nations — 
but  their  religion  repressed  instead  of  advancing  the  civi- 
lization of  Egypt  They  were  not  encouraged  to  con- 
gregate in  cities,  or  build,  in  imitation  of  their  neighbors, 
those  monuments  which  should  defy  the  assaults  of  time 
to  impair,  or  barbarism  to  deface. 

The  land  was  allotted  equally  to  each  family,  who  were 
to  possess  their  inheritance  in  perpetuity,  subject  to  cer- 
tain conditions.  The  Israehtes  were  not  ignorant  of  the 
arts,  as  the  workmanship  of  the  tabernacle  demonstrates ; 
but  they  were  not  distinguished  for  their  cultivation. 
An  example  in  modem  times  of  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity in  promoting  the  social  condition,  good  govern- 
ment, and  general  intelligence  among  a  people,  and  a  high 
standard  of  morality,  in  contrast  with  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion, and  an  inferior  moral  development,  in  a  neighboring 
•tate,  may  be  seen  by  a  comparison  between  France  and 


64  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

Scotland.  The  former  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  most 
highly  ciyilized  state  in  Europe,  and  of  course  in  the 
world.  This  is  claimed  by  M.  Guizot,  and  cannot  be  de- 
nied— using  the  term  civilization  in  its  ordinary  and  popu- 
lar sense.  Yet  this  pre-eminence  is  not  the  result  of 
Christianity,  which  has  within  half  a  century  been  pub- 
licly discarded  by  the  French  people,  and  exercises  now 
less  influence  upon  the  great  mass  of  mind  in  France, 
than  in  any  other  nominally  Christian  nation.  With  some 
exceptions,  religion  in  France  is  the  mere  pageant  and 
tool  of  the  state — the  people  are  essentially  skeptical 
and  irreligious.  Yet  France  is  distinguished  above  all 
other  nations  for  taste,  refinement,  the  cultivation  of  the 
fine  arts,  and  a  high  civilization.  Scotland,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  distinguished  for  the  general  diff"usion  of  intelli- 
gence among  the  masses — for  the  sobriety  and  morality 
of  its  population — and  outranks  in  the  moral  element,  all 
the  nations  of  Europe.  This  was  virtually  confessed 
by  the  communication  addressed  by  the  French  govern- 
ment, and,  if  I  mistake  not,  by  Louis  Philippe,  King  of 
the  French,  a  few  years  ago,  to  the  celebrated  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, seeking  information  in  regard  to  the  causes  of  the 
high  moral  elevation  of  Scotland.  Yet  Scotland  is  not 
distinguished  for  a  high  civilization.  Philosophers  and 
divines — world-famous — are  hers ;  but  she  has  few  Sa- 
vans — few  monuments  of  architectural  skill,  and  little 
renown  in  the  arts ;  yet  in  no  nation  in  the  world,  has 


UPON    CIVILIZATION.  66 

the  spirit  of  a  primitive  Christianity  been  more  manifest 
than  in  Scotland,  the  Exodus  of  whose  church  from  the 
mere  shadow  of  dictation  by  the  government,  at  the 
expense  of  all  men  ordinarily  hold  most  dear,  is  an  abun- 
dant proof  of  the  earnestness  and  truthfulness  of  the 
religious  principle  in  the  Scottish  heart 

Christianity  is  taught,  not  tolerated,  in  the  common 
schools  of  Scotland,  and  made  the  basis  of  education,  no 
less  than  morals.  Here  then  we  see  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  same  influence  which  operated  upon  the 
Hebrews,  four  thousand  years  since,  producing  the  same 
results.  What  Israel  and  Egypt  were  among  the  an- 
cients, Scotland  and  France  are  among  the  moderns ;  the 
one  demonstrating  the  proper  influence  of  the  religious 
principle — the  other,  of  mere  intellectual  development ;  the 
one  exhibiting  government  and  civilization,  modified  by 
Christianity — the  other,  as  they  exist  and  are  perpetuated 
under  mere  human  influences.  It  does  not  fall  directly 
within  the  scope  of  our  inquiry  to  notice  at  large  the 
advantages  of  these  two  forms  of  civilization.  It  will  be 
enough  to  suggest  that  France,  with  all  her  civilization, 
maintains  with  forty  thousand  bayonets,  a  government 
which  is  ever  quaking  on  the  verge  of  revolution ;  that 
her  monarch's  life  has  been  repeatedly  attempted ;  that 
it  is  a  common  opinion  in  Europe  that  the  death  of  Louis' 
Phillippe  will  open  the  flood-gates  of  disorder  in  France, 
and  perhaps  provoke  a  general  war ;  and  that,  in  all  the 
3* 


66  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

elements  of  true  greatness,  she  is  inferior  to  that  poor 
and  barren  Scotland,  who  sends  forth  her  sons  over  the 
whole  world,  living  epistles  of  the  great  truth  that  the 
fear  of  God  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  The  French 
Savan  is  excavating  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  under  the 
patronage  of  his  government,  and  sending  to  Paris  the 
glorious  monuments  of  primitive  civilization,  which,  he 
owns,  are  without  a  rival ; — the  Scottish  missionary  and 
scholar  is  a  wanderer  among  the  habitations  of  cruelty  in 
the  dark  places  of  earth,  preaching  the  everlasting  Gospel. 
If  the  work  of  the  former  is  commendable,  and  we  do 
not  deny  it,  that  of  the  latter  is  glorious  and  sublime.  If 
to  disclose  on  the  one  hand  the  long  concealed  monuments 
of  Chaldean  civilization — to  exhibit  in  Paris  the  winged 
hons  of  Nineveh — be  worthy  the  patronage  of  a 
government  and  the  praise  of  France ;  to  restore,  on  the 
other,  to  the  long  darkened  and  oppressed,  the  hght  of  a 
lost  civilization,  the  principles  of  a  free  government,  and 
the  hope  of  an  endless  life,  is  worthy  the  patronage  of 
the  world  and  the  applause  of  mankind. 

Upon  a  former  occasion,  we  noticed  the  influence  of 
Christianity  in  ameliorating  the  severity  of  law,  and  in 
restoring  the  decayed  civilization  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

M.  Guizot  in  his  well  known  treatise  on  European 
Civilization,  makes  Christianity  a  prominent  element  in 
what  he  calls  its  development;  yet  he  considers  this 
influence  incidental  and  not  direct     He  says,  and  says 


UPON   CIVILIZATION.  (J7 

truly,  "  Christianity  was  in  no  way  addressed  to  the 
social  condition  of  man;  it  distinctly  disclaimed  all 
interference  with  it.  It  commanded  the  slave  to  obey 
his  master ;  it  attacked  none  of  the  great  evils — none  of 
the  gross  acts  of  injustice  by  which  the  social  system  of 
that  day  was  disfigured ;  yet  who  but  will  acknowledge 
that  Christianity  has  been  one  of  the  greatest  promoters 
of  ciWlization  ?  and  wherefore,  because  it  has  changed 
the  interior  condition  of  man,  his  opinions,  his  senti- 
ments— because  it  has  regenerated  his  moral,  his  intel- 
lectual character.'*  In  addition  to  what  this  author  has 
said,  it  may  be  further  urged,  that  Christianity  did  not 
attack  the  social  system,  because,  notwithstanding  its 
abuses,  it  had  the  same  divine  origin  with  itself.  It  did 
not  attack  governments,  because  governments  were  or- 
dained of  God.  It  did  not  profess  to  teach  civilization, 
for  the  world  possessed  the  civilization  which  was  origi- 
nally the  gift  of  God.  Of  the  corruptions  which  had 
overwhelmed  them  all,  it  sought  a  remedy  in  individual 
regeneration — in  the  recovery  of  the  man  from  the  do- 
minion of  sin,  and  in  preparing  the  way  for  the  gradual 
abatement  of  evils,  which  were  so  interwoven  with  the 
structure  of  society  and  government  that  they  could  not 
be  violently  removed,  without  danger  of  destruction  to 
the  whole  fabric.  The  influence  of  Christianity  is  upon 
the  moral  condition  of  man ;  and  this,  in  civilized  states, 
affects,  I  *.bink,  not  the  -natter  but  the  manner  of  bis 


68  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

civilization — ^while  it  incidentally  and  gradually  works 
an  improvement  in  government,  establishes  law,  and  se- 
cures the  rights  of  person  and  property.  It  also  re&trains 
that  mere  external  civilization,  which  concentrates  the 
means  of  a  nation  in  magnificent  monuments,  and  makes 
wealth  the  minister  of  luxury,  and  pride,  and  ostentation, 
rather  than  of  goodness.  We  may  as  well  remark  at 
this  place,  that,  while  M.  Guizot  appears,  in  his  work,  to 
maintain  the  idea  of  progress,  and  speaks  of  civilization 
as  in  its  infancy,  yet  his  facts,  it  is  apprehended,  no  where 
warrant  this  conclusion,  unless  he  intends  simply  the 
moral  progTess  of  man,  which  he  includes  in  his  defini- 
tion of  civilization.  We  believe  in  a  moral  progress,  se- 
cured by  the  divine  purpose  and  power — that  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Gospel  is  eventually  to  break  every  yoke, 
and  let  every  captive  go  free. 

Of  ancient  civilization  he  thus  speaks : 

"When  we  look  at  the  civilizations  which  have  pre- 
ceded that  of  modern  Europe,  whether  in  Asia  or  else- 
where, including  even  those  of  Greece  and  Rome,  it  is 
impossible  not  to  be  struck  with  the  unity  of  character 
which  reigns  among  them.  Each  appears  as  though  it 
had  emanated  from  a  single  fact — from  a  single  idea." 

Now,  we  contend  that  the  European  civilization,  of 
which  this  distinguished  author  treats,  is  made  up  of  ele- 
ments previously  existing;  indeed,  these  elements,  com- 
mingled, constitute,  by  his  own  showing,  modern  civiliza- 


rrpoK  CIVILIZATION.  69 

tion.  The  unity  of  character,  which  M.  Guizot  discovers 
in  ancient  civilization,  we  contend,  runs  through  its 
whole  history,  proving  our  position — that  civilization  was 
the  original  condition  of  man ;  that  government  and  so- 
ciety are  of  divine  constitution,  and  in  their  great  cha- 
racteristics, essentially  the  same,  in  every  age,  resulting 
from  no  law  of  progress  or  development,  but  that  all 
their  divei-sified  streams,  however  they  may  vary  in 
magnitude,  or  at  whatever  distance  they  may  appear, 
can  be  historically  traced  back  to  the  same  fountain. 

Civilization,  in  its  intellectual  developments,  is  much 
the  same  in  every  age — as  man  is  intellectually  the 
jHune ;  he  may  seek  different  fields  in  one  age,  and  excel 
in  different  departments.  If  the  ancients  are  our  mas- 
ters in  Poetr}^  Oratory,  History,  and  the  Arts,  we  may 
be  superior  to  them  in  the  mechanical  inventions.  But 
the  exhibitions  of  genius  and  intellectual  power  are  as 
manifest  in  the  early  as  in  the  later  ages ;  and  the  reason 
is  obvious — man  was  created  with  the  same  intel- 
lectual powers  that  he  now  possesses,  and  the  social 
order,  government,  a  written  language,  and  civilization, 
were  original  and  divinely  bestowed  upon  him.  On  the 
other  hand — civilization,  in  its  moral  development,  is  af- 
fected by  the  moral  state  of  a  community.  Does  a  false 
religion  prevail  ? — its  effects  will  be  seen,  not  necessarily 
in  the  loss  of  civilization,  but  in  the  general  corruption 
of  manners — in  the  oppression,  perhaps,  of  the  lower 


70  INFLUENCE    OF   CHRISTIANITT 

classes — ^in  the  luxury  and  wickedness  of  a  corrupt  aris- 
tocracy. Does  Christianity  shed  its  divine  influence 
upon  a  people? — it  promotes  good  government,  equal 
laws;  it  teaches  men  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and 
walk  humbly  with  God ;  but  we  cannot  see  that  it  adds 
to  the  previously  existing  stimulus,  by  which  the  seas 
are  vexed  with  commerce,  the  elements  subdued  to  the 
human  will,  and  power,  territory,  and  wealth,  acquired 
and  increased. 

We  are  not  disposed  then  to  deny  that  the  Christian 
religion  exerts  an  influence  upon  modern  civilization ;  but 
that  it  originated  it»  or  is  responsible  for  its  prominent 
developments,  we  beheve  to  be  false.  Has  the  Christian 
religion  driven  the  poor  children  of  England  from  the 
green  fields  which  their  hardy  and  gallant  fathers  tilled, 
and  condemned  them  to  the  fearful  imprisonment  of  a 
cotton  factory,  to  be  tortured  by  a  steam  demon  ?  Has 
Christianity  contrived  the  multiplication  of  machinery, 
which  has  taken  bread  from  the  mouths  of  the  poor,  to 
bestow  enormous  fortunes  upon  the  rich  ?  Is  the  money- 
loving,  grasping,  selfish  spirit  of  modern  civilization,  nur- 
tured upon  the  bosom  of  our  pure  faith  ?  I  know,  in- 
deed, it  is  possible,  in  the  language  of  a  poet,  "  to  steal 
the  Hvery  of  heaven  to  serve  the  devil  in ;"  and  no  one 
can  more  abhor  the  hypocrisy,  which,  with  holy  faces  and 
religious  professions,  covers  deceit  and  dishonesty.  But 
the  question  is  not  of  the  detestable  sin  of  hypocrisy,  or 


trPOW   CIVILIZATION.  71 

whether  Christianity  is  not  fearfully  abused  in  being 
made  literally  to  "  cover  a  multitude  of  sins,"  but  whether 
she  is  responsible  for  our  modern  civilization;  whether 
our  Christianity  and  our  civilization  can  be  properly 
joined  together  so  as  to  predicate  the  permanency  and 
security  of  the  latter  upon  the  divine  promise  to  the 
former.  Any  person  who  carefully  reads  the  New  Testa- 
ment must  see  that  our  civilization  would  receive  a  shock 
in  any  community,  the  large  majority  of  whom  were 
thoroughly  imbued  with  its  sentiments.  The  Puritans, 
perhaps,  were  as  fully  possessed  of  the  religious  spirit  as 
any  class  of  men  since  the  Apostolic  day,  but  our  civili- 
zation mocks  at  the  simplicity  of  their  manners  and  the 
severity  of  their  morals.  Where  is  the  people  at  this 
time,  if  we  except  Scotland,  where  the  prevalence  of  per- 
sonal religion  is  such  as  to  give  a  predominance  to  the 
religious  element  in  their  civilization  ?  Besides,  it  is  evi- 
dent»  that,  what  is  commonly  called  the  progress  of 
civilization,  is  really  its  decay,  and  is  but  the  ripeness 
of  falling  fruit  The  history  of  the  world  shows,  that 
civilization  tends  to  excess,  unrestrained  by  the  moral 
elements,  and  passes  away  from  its  original  seats  to  new 
centres,  and  is  transferred  from  among  a  weak  and 
effeminate  people  to  flourish  anew  in  a  virgin  soil.  From 
Babylon,  Egypt,  and  Phoenicia,  it  traveled  to  Rome  and 
Carthage,  and  was  always  in  its  highest  perfection  in 
that  stage,  in  the  history  of  these  great  Empires,  when 


72  INFLUENCE    OF   CHRISTIANITY 

it  appeared  to  be  in  its  infancy,  and  when  industry, 
economy  and  courage  were  connected  with  arts  and  com- 
merce. With  wealth,  luxury,  and  excessive  civilization, 
begins  the  process  of  decay. 

Even  Guizot  admits,  that  the  period  of  the  greatest 
apparent  civilization  is  often  the  period  of  decay.  "  No 
one,  for  example,  will  deny,"  says  this  author,  "  that 
there  are  communities  in  which  the  social  state  of  man 
is  better  than  in  others,  which  yet  will  be  pronounced 
by  the  unanimous  voice  of  mankind,  to  be  superior  in 
point  of  civilization."  Guizot  instances  Rome  in  the 
days  of  the  Republic,  at  the  close  of  the  second  Punic 
war,  and  Rome  in  the  Augustan  age,  in  illustration  of 
this  truth.  "  The  first  period,"  he  says,  "  was  the  moment 
of  her  greatest  virtues,  when  she  was  rapidly  advancing 
to  the  empire  of  the  world — the  latter  was  the  period  of 
her  highest  civilization  and  her  decline.  He  instances, 
also,  France  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
as  superior  in  civilization,  yet  inferior  in  social  order,  to 
England  and  Holland,  which  agrees  with  the  view  we 
have  taken  of  Scotland  in  contrast  with  France.  We 
might  add  to  this  statement  an  explanation  of  the  case 
not  noticed  by  Guizot  and  which  illustrates  the  influ- 
ence of  Christianity  upon  civilization,  the  fact,  that  a  far 
purer  faith  prevailed  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  in  Holland  and  England,  than  in  France ;  which 
proves  what  we  have  before  urged,  that   Christianity 


UPON    CIVILIZATION.  ^S 

exercises  a  more  direct  influence  upon  government  and 
social  order  than  upon  civilization,  which  it  restrains 
rather  than  stimulates. 

Need  I  remind  you  of  the  history  of  the  nations  that 
have  flourished  and  fallen,  to  prove  that  the  increase  of 
wealth,  luxury,  population,  and  commerce,  all  indicia  of 
a  high  civilization,  are  so  far  from  being  foundations  of 
security,  that  they  are,  and  ever  have  been,  the  precur- 
sors of  the  ruin  of  nations  ?  This  proves  the  divine  ori- 
gin of  that  religion,  which,  placing  bounds  to  the  desires 
of  men,  restraining  ambition,  repressing  pride,  and  incul- 
cating  the  lesson  of  labor  and  frugality,  opposes  the  ten- 
dency to  an  excessive  and  ruinous  civilization,  in  which 
the  debasement  of  the  lower  classes,  the  effeminacy, 
miscalled  refinement,  and  selfishness  of  the  higher  orders, 
come  to  sap  the  foundations  of  public  virtue  and  national 
security.  The  increase  of  wealth,  population,  commerce, 
and  territory,  instead  of  sustaining  imaginary  theories  of 
progress  and  perfectibility,  lead  us  back  in  the  light  of 
history  and  experience  to  the  uniform  causes  of  national 
corruption  and  ruin.  Do  I  speak  without  proofs  ?  Go, 
visit  the  marsh  where  Babylon  once  sat,  the  glory  of 
nations  !  Go,  read  the  lessons  recorded  on  the  broken 
arches  of  the  hundred  gates  of  Thebes  !  Visit,  Marius- 
like,  the  ruins  of  Carthage  !  gaze  upon  the  fishermen's 
nets  hung  out  to  dry,  where  the  merchant-princes  of 
Tyre  once  trafficked  with  the  worid  1     Let  Persepolis,  or 


74  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

Palmyra,  or  Alexandria,  or  Athens,  utter  their  testimony  ! 
Or,  if  you  want  a  crowning  demonstration,  visit  Rome 
and  gaze  upon  the  shrunken  spectre  that  haunts  the 
places  of  her  departed  glory ! 

Nor  has  it  escaped  the  attention  of  our  wiser  and 
more  reflecting  statesmen,  that  there  is  danger  even  in 
this  young  country,  with  its  vast  resources  for  supplying 
the  wants  of  an  increasing  population,  and  its  great  po- 
litical advantage  in  possessing  an  agricultural  population, 
having  a  stake  in  the  soil  and  in  the  institutions  of  the 
country,  and  counterbalancing  in  the  comparative  am- 
plicity  of  agricultural  life,  those  ulcers  upon  the  body- 
politic,  our  large  cities,  which,  boasting  of  their  refine- 
ment, wealth  and  civilization,  are  nevertheless  filled  with 
elements  of  destruction — that  we  are  exposed  to  the 
evils  which  follow  in  the  very  train  of  our  rapid  ad- 
vance. These  warnings,  recorded  from  the  lips  of  our 
wisest  and  best  men,  are  founded  upon  profound  obser- 
vation— the  admission  of  the  corruption  of  human  na- 
ture— the  tendency  of  great  prosperity,  and  the  results 
of  extended  territory,  vast  population,  and  increasing 
wealth,  in  every  age  of  the  world,  and  upon  all  those 
nations  whose  wrecks  He  scattered  on  the  shores  of  time. 
There  is  danger  as  well  as  folly  in  shutting  our  eyes  to 
the  lessons  of  experience,  in  the  constant  glorification  of 
ourselves,  our  age,  our  institutions,  our  inventions,  oui 
progress,  as  though  genius,  wisdom,  truth,  and  know- 


UPON   CIVILIZATION.  15 

ledge,  were  now,  for  the  first  time,  manifested,  and  our 
philosophy,  our  scholarship,  our  civilization,  was  the  Eu- 
reka after  which  our  half-savage  predecessors  sought  in 
vain,  and  which  we,  having  found,  are  like  the  Greek 
geometrician,  crying  out  our  discovery  in  the  streets. 
The  Greek  was  excusable,  for  he  had  made  a  discovery ; 
but  for  an  age  really  so  barren  of  great  names,  of  pro- 
found scholarship,  of  artistical  excellence — for  an    age 
distinguished  mainly  for  the  worship  of  Mammon,   to 
vaunt  itself  against  the  giants  of  old,  to  talk  about  pro- 
gress, and  human  perfectibility,  and  man,  in  the  nine- 
teenth century !  there  is  no  excuse,  unless  we  plead  igno- 
rance of  the  great  men  and  the  great  facts  of  History. 
If  money  be  the  chief  good — if  the  inventions  which 
save  labor  and  increase  capital  are  the  highest  manifesta- 
tions of  human  intellect — if  persevering  self-glorification 
be  a  proof  of  real  merit — then  this  generation  may  claim 
to  have  passed  beyond  the  boundaries  of  its  predeces- 
sors— then  have  we  a  right  to  look  scornfully  down  upon 
the  learning,  the  civilization,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  past 
Besides,  it  is  not  learning,  or  civilization,  or  the  know- 
ledge of  this  world,  that  can  elevate  man  to  that  high  po- 
sition, which,  assuming  to  have  attained,  he  ever  finds  has 
eluded  his  grasp,  and  which  is  not  to  be  won  by  earthly 
weapons  or  human  wisdom. 

That  the  day  will  come  when  the  voices  heard  by  the 
Shepherds  in  the  plains  of  Galilee  proclaiming,  "  Peace 


16  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

on  earth,  and  good  will  to  men,"  shall  break  upon  the 
ear  of  every  child  of  Adam,  in  every  dark  spot  on  the 
globe,  is  a  hope  justified  by  the  promise  of  Him  who 
has  given  to  his  Son  the  heathen  for  an  inheritance  and 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  a  possession.  What 
wealth,  and  civilization,  and  commerce,  cannot  do  for 
man,  Christianity  can  do.  The  Star  of  Bethlehem 
shining  on  amid  a  darkness  that  might  be  felt,  or  amid  me- 
teors which  have  dazzled  only  to  destroy,  is  to  become  a 
Sun  of  Righteousness  to  our  fallen  world,  chasing  away 
the  night  of  centuries,  extinguishing  all  other  lights  in 
the  blaze  of  its  meridian  glory,  and  then  restored  to  the 
moral  image  of  his  Maker,  man  shall  walk  once  more  in 
Eden,  and  the  voices  of  earth  shall  mingle  again  with 
the  anthems  of  heaven,  as  when  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy ! 


LECTURE  III. 


THE   STAR   ALDEBARAN 


This  is  a  fixed  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  situated  in 
the  eye  of  Taurus.  It  is  the  largest  star  of  the  group, 
and  with  four  others  in  the  face  of  Taurus,  composes  the 
Hyades ;  it  is  commonly  called  the  Bull's  Eye.  The  Hy- 
ades  is  a  cluster  of  stars  situated  about  eleven  degrees 
south-east  from  the  Pleiades,  consisting  chiefly  of  small 
stars,  so  arranged  as  to  form  a  figure  like  the  letter  V.  "  At 
the  left,"  says  an  astronomer,  "  on  the  top  of  the  letter  is  a 
star  of  the  first  magnitude,  called  Aldebaran,  which  is 
distinguished  from  most  of  the  other  stars,  by  its  ruddy 
appearance."  PaUlicium  is  another  name  of  this  star; 
and  the  usual  cognomen  of  Aldebaran  is  supposed  to  be 
of  Arabic  origin.  The  parallex  of  this  star  is  not  known, 
and  of  course  its  distance  from  us  cannot  be  determined, 
that  it  is  immense  and  almost  beyond  the  power  of  num- 
bers to  compute,  is  obvious  from  the  ascertained  distances 
of  those  fixed  stars  which  are  more  within  the  range  of 


78  THE    STAR   ALDEBABAN. 

our  observation.  The  distance  of  sixty-one  Cygni  is 
found  to  be  about  five  hundred  and  ninety-two  thousand 
times  that  of  the  earth  from  the  sun,  and  light  traveling 
at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  two  thousand  miles  in  a 
second  is  more  than  nine  years  in  passing  from  this  star 
to  our  planet  Vast  as  this  distance  is,  there  are  observa- 
ble stars,  and  Aldebaran  is  probably  one  of  them,  who 
are,  perhaps,  a  hundred  times  farther  from  us,  and  from 
whom  the  passage  of  fight  to  the  earth  may  be  reckoned 
by  centuries.  But  it  is  no  part  of  our  design  to  enter 
upon  the  details  of  the  vast  subject  of  Astronomy.  There 
are  those  here  far  more  competent  to  such  a  task  than 
the  speaker — some  of  whom  have  won  a  degree  of  de- 
served celebrity  in  this  department  of  science.  The  star 
Aldeharan  is  simply  our  motto;  we  use  it  as  some 
preachers  improve  passages  of  Holy  Writ,  merely  by  way 
of  accommodation.  This  is  a  convenient  mode  when  one 
is  desirous  of  having  no  very  close  connection  between 
his  text  and  his  sermon,  of  hanging  a  great  variety  of 
topics  upon  the  thread  of  his  discourse,  fike  beads  of  dif- 
ferent sizes  and  material,  strung  without  form  or  order. 
But  though  we  intend  to  be  discursive,  we  hope  not  to 
be  tedious.  The  star  Aldebaran  is  not  so  comprehensive 
a  topic  as  the  one  selected  by  an  old  author,  who  wrote 
in  Latin,  and  who  entitled  his  book,  "  De  Omnibus  rebus 
et  quibusdara  afiis," — "  concerning  all  things  and  some 
others," — which  at  least  was  giving  his  readers  fair  warn- 


THE   STAR   ALDEBARA17.  70 

ing  of  the  Herculean  task  they  were  about  to  enter  upon. 
Some  may  condemn  us  as  presumptive  in  selecting  so 
high  a  theme.  What  can  he  tell  us  of  this  star,  upon 
whom  no  man  has  laid  the  measure,  or  stretched  a  line 
iip(m  it  ?  Will  the  wings  of  his  imagination  carry  him 
over  that  impassable  solitude  of  space  that  separates  the 
Earth  from  Aldebaran — will  not  his  pinions. melt  like 
those  of  Icarus  before  he  has  fairly  taken  his  departure 
from  this  planet  ?  With  the  writer  of  the  aforesaid  book 
upon  "  all  things  and  some  others,"  we  may  fall  into  the 
condemnation  of  unpardonable  presumption.  On  the 
other  hand  it  will  be  said,  that  the  topic  is  unworthy 
this  enlightened  age,  in  which  there  is  so  much  to  admire 
and  applaud — that  a  man  is  a  fool  to  talk  about  any  other 
stars  than  those  which  began  to  shine  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  before  whom  Aldebaran  and  all  the  ancient 
lights  must  "  pale  their  ineflfectual  fires."  What  pre- 
sumption is  this,  says  one,  to  bring  before  us  an  insignifi- 
cant star,  whose  twinkling  is  only  noticed  by  a  few 
Tisionaries,  who  are  behind  the  intelligence  of  the  age, 
unmindful  of  those  glories  which  have  newly  risen  to 
to  drive  away  the  darkness  of  antiquity.  What  utility  is 
there,  says  another,  in  discussions  about  stars  ? — what 
money  is  there  to  be  made  out  of  such  investigations  ? — 
what  impetus  can  be  given  to  that  progress  which  is  the 
glory  of  the  modern  generations,  and  the  shame  by  con- 
trast of  the  past  ?    How  can  any  man  have  the  face  to 


80  THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN. 

leave  the  beaten  track  of  glorification,  to  go  into  the  for- 
bidden paths  of  ancient  and  forgotten  things  ?  How  much 
better  those  themes  whose  popularity  is  as  exhaustless  as 
is  the  appetite  of  the  vanity  to  which  they  minister — 
which  are  sure  of  success — which  never  fail  of  that  ap- 
plause which  the  law  of  reciprocity  demands,  agreeably 
to  the  Scotch  proverb,  "  some  thing  for  some  thing,"  or 
"  flatter  me  and  I'll  flatter  you."  But,  notwithstanding 
these  anticipated  criticisms,  we  hope  that  our  star  will 
meet  with  favor — that  Aldebaran  being  a  fixed  star,  may 
be  allowed  to  shine  without  the  aid  of  borrowed  fight 
We  have  no  expectation  of  shining  as  a  bright  and  par- 
ticular star,  and  desire  no  greater  encomium  than  the 
usage  demands.  We  ask  no  brighter  coloring  for  Palifi- 
cium  pictures  from  the  press  than  that  which  is  used  at 
every  sitting  and  for  the  common  portrait,  which,  in  the 
poetic  and  elegant  phraseology  of  the  West,  "  is  as  large 
as  fife  and  twice  as  natural." 

We  hope  the  antiquity  of  Aldebaran  will  be  excused, 
for  he  has  continued  to  shine  while  many  lesser  though 
apparently  brighter  lights  have  gone  out  Many  a  Meteor 
has  startled  the  nations  and  fified  the  horizon  with  light» 
which  has  only  left  behind  it  darkness  more  intense ;  but 
Aldebaran  began  to  shine  when  the  "  morning  stars  sang 
together  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy."  From 
that  day  to  this,  with  uniform  and  steady  lustre  he  has 
looked  out  upon  the  mutations  of  human  affairs.     Upon 


THB    STAR   ALOEBARAN.  SI 

Eden,  the  garden  of  God,  shone  the  eye  of  Taurus,  and 
upon  the  primitive  and  happy  pair  who  sat  by  the  tree 
of  life,  and  saw  its  silver  leaves  glimmer  in  the  rays  of 
Palilicium.     He  looked  pitifully  out  upon  the  ruins  of 
the  fell  and  saw  those  generations  who  filled  the  Earth 
with  violence.     The  light  of  this  star  gleamed  upon  the 
waters  that  swept  away  the  inhabitants  of  the  old  world, 
and  covered  the  earth  as  with  a  garment     Upon  Alde- 
baran  and  his  constellation,  Noah  and  his  household  gazed 
from  the  Ark  with  hope — seeing  that  God  had  not  dis- 
turbed the  heavenly  bodies — the  stars  yet  shone  in  their 
courses,  though  he  had  smitten  the  earth  with  a  curse. 
His  rays  played  scornfully  upon  the  towers  of  Babel, 
which  sought  to  lift  themselves  among  the  stars,  and 
and  were  thunder-smitten.     He  looked  into  the  eyes  of 
the  star-gazers,  who,  in  the  plains  of  Chaldea,  first  sought 
to  mark  the  laws  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  to  map 
their  courses.     Upon  that  night  of  fear,  when  the  Angel 
of  the  Lord  smote  the  first-bom  of  Egypt,  in  every  house, 
looked  out  Aldebaran.     His  beams  fell  upon  that  com- 
pany who  wandered  through  the  wilderness  and  heard 
the  voice  of  God  from  the  precipices  of  Sinai.     Upon  the 
Shepherds  who  watched  by  night  in  Gallilee  and  heard 
the  annunciation  of  a  Saviour's  birth,  beamed  Aldeba- 
ran — ^his  eye  rested  upon  the  Sepulchre  of  the  Lord  of 
Life,  and  upon  the  Roman  guards  that  watched  its  por- 
tals.    He  saw   the  wolf-nurtured   founders  of  ancient 
4 


92  THE    BTAR   ALDEBARAN. 

Rome,  and  shone  upon  the  Kingdom,  the  Republic,  and 
the  Emph-e.  His  light  was  reflected  from  the  Pagan 
altars,  and  from  the  Christian  temples  of  the  Eternal 
City.  Her  Kings  and  Consuls,  her  Dictators  and  Tri- 
bunes, her  Senators  and  Emperors,  passed  in  succession 
before  Aldebaran.  He  saw  her  rise  and  fall,  and  the 
broken  fragments  of  her  empire,  out  of  which  the 
modern  kingdoms  of  Eiirope  came,  and  he  shines  on 
with  the  same  calm  and  holy  light  which  beamed  from 
him  at  the  beginning.  Think  not  the  less  kindly  of  Alde- 
baran for  his  age ;  if  he  has  made  no  progress  he  has  at 
least  lost  none  of  his  pristine  glory.  If  he  does  not 
glow  the  more  and  shine  the  brighter  in  view  of  the 
amazing  advances  of  the  nineteenth  century,  think  what 
an  apology  he  has  before  whom  so  many  generations, 
with  the  same  bright  hopes,  the  same  fond  anticipations, 
the  same  expectations  of  progress  and  the  same  certainty 
of  success,  have  passed  and  been  broken  on  the  rock- 
bound  shores  of  time.  Consider  how  he  is  bewildered 
in  his  conclusions  by  his  experience  of  the  past — not 
perceiving,  as  we  do,  that  our  pride  has  any  better  foun- 
dation or  our  progress  any  more  certain  result  than  that 
of  other  ages,  whose  expectations  have  perished,  and  over 
the  broken  monuments  of  whose  magnificence,  Aldebaran 
now  shines  as  he  did  in  their  day  of  promise  and  glory. 

Perhaps  the  stars  are  offended  because  we  have  de- 
parted from  the  faith  of  their  ancient  votaries.     We 


THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN.  83 

hold  up  to  scorn  the  pursuits  of  the  old  Astrologer  who 
saw,  or  fancied  he  saw,  connections  infinite  in  the  uni- 
verse— who,  ignorant  of  the  subUme  discovery  of  modem 
times,  that  men  are  bom  imder  bumps,  beUeved  that  they 
were  born  under  stars,  and  watched  the  conjunctions  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  and  marked  those  wliich  were  pre- 
dominant in  the  house  of  life.     He  cast  a  horoscope  of 
the  heavens  (the  benighted  man)  instead  of  drawing  a 
chart  of  the  head.     If  Mars  was  in  the  ascendant,  he 
predicted  the  characteristic  of  fiery  courage  for  the  child 
born  under  the  influence  of  the  blood-red  planet,  while, 
with  a  wisdom  which  excites  astonishment  among  the 
heavenly  bodies,  the  moderns  predict  combativeness  from 
a  particular  protuberance  of  the  brain.     Nor"  should  it 
be  forgotten  that  our  Aldebaran  has  a  red  and  fiery  ap- 
pearance, like  Mars,  and  is,  possibly,  a  vehement  and  pas- 
sionate star,  and  the  more  readily  angered  to  see  the  As- 
trologer driven  from  his  tower,  his  Astrolabe  broken,  his 
lofty  conceptions  ridiculed,  his  high  imaginings  of  con- 
nections between  the  inmiortal  soul  of  man  and  the  glo- 
rious orbs  that  preside  over  his  birth,  cast  down  before 
the  earthly  and  sensual  speculations  of  modem  philoso- 
phy.    Possibly  he  has  incited  the  other  stars  to  join  in  a 
conspiracy  not  to  honor  this  gifted  and  remarkable,  this 
unsurpassed  and  unsurpassable  age,  with  any  extraordi- 
nary degree  of  shining,  or  unusual  commotion,  on  ac- 
count of  this  dishonor  cast  upon  the  ancient  votaries  of 


lUi 


84  THE    STAR   ALDBBARAN. 

the  heavenly  host.  The  stars  have  the  presumption  to 
think  that  the  old  delusion  was  more  pardonable  than  the 
new — more  honorable  to  them  and  more  agreeable  to  the 
analogies  and  connections  of  the  universe.  They  have 
the  hardihood  to  believe,  that  there  are  higher  signifi- 
cances in  them  than  magnitude,  motion,  and  distance,  and 
that  God  created  and  suspended  them  in  space,  not  only 
that  they  might  be  measured,  their  motions  ascertained, 
their  revolutions  counted,  and  their  distances  observed, 
but  to  teach  great  moral  lessons  of  the  being  and  glory 
of  him  who  made  them,  and  of  the  immutability  and  ac- 
countability of  the  creatures  who  are  able  to  survey  and 
comprehend  them ;  and  the  foolish  stars  think,  that  even 
judicial  astrology,  fanciful  as  it  was,  and  false  in  its  appli- 
cation, was  yet  a  nobler  and  more  excusable  error  than 
some  of  the  philosophies  of  this  enlightened  generation. 
Possibly  the  stars,  bhnded  by  ancient  prejudices,  have 
an  idea  that  the  old  exploded  Alchemy,  the  parent  of 
our  modern  Chemistry,  is  not  without  a  counterpart  in 
our  times,  which,  we  know,  thanks  to  our  freedom  from 
all  prejudices,  are  the  days  of  progress  and  perfection. 
It  is  highly  probable  that  Aldebaran,  that  old  fashioned 
Star,  has  a  notion  that  the  search  after  the  philosopher's 
stone — the  effort  to  transmute  the  metals  to  gold,  based 
upon  a  true  philosophy  that  all  metals  and  all  forms  of 
matter,  having  a  common  basis,  being  resolved  by  fire  into 
certain  gases,  and  failing  only  because  our  chemistry  is 


THE    STAR    ALDEBARAN.  85 

not  as  perfect  as  that  of  nature — was  as  respectable  a 
pursuit  as  that  which  seeks  to  demonstrate  a  universal 
animal  attraction,  which  transmutes  souls  and  passes  them 
out  of  their  own  natural  bodies  into  those  of  others.  He 
might  argue,  if  stars  reason,  that  the  partial  success 
which  has  attended  the  efforts  of  the  French  chemists  to 
form  diamonds  from  carbon,  proves  that  the  attempt  of 
the  Alchemist  to  manufacture  metals,  was  not  really  so 
absurd  as  this  enlightened  age  imagines ;  or,  at  least,  is 
no  more  ridiculous  than  some  things  which  characterize 
a  generation  which  so  easily  discover  the  mote  in  the  eye 
of  the  former  generations  without  perceiving  the  beam 
in  their  own.  If  our  Star  has  such  notions,  it  certainly 
is  an  explanation  of  his  extraordinary  equanimity,  in  view 
of  our  progress,  and  an  apology  for  him  and  the  other  stars 
for  not  holding  a  jubilee  over  the  nineteenth  century. 
•  Besides,  the  stars  are  prejudiced  in  favor  of  that  old 
Gospel,  the  proclamation  of  which  they  heard  in  that 
hour  of  sorrow  when  condemnation,  depravity  and  death 
became  the  sad  inheritance  of  our  race.  They  heard 
its  annunciation  in  that  day  of  doom ;  they  saw  its  light 
break  upon  the  darkness ;  they  have  watched  its  course 
and  progress  through  successive  dispensations  for  more 
than  six  thousand  years,  and  they  believe  in  it  yet  ! 
They  do  not  see,  with  its,  that  whatever  is  old,  is  necessa. 
rily  false,  and  whatever  is  novel,  is,  for  that  cause,  to  be 
received  as  true.     With  the  suspicion  common  to  age — 


THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN. 


and  they  are  old  enough  to  be  in  their  dotage — they  re- 
gard the  new  gospels  which  we  discover^  to  be  the  fore- 
runners of  a  gTand  political  and  philosophical  millenium, 
with  little  favor;  they  think  the  old  is  better,  and  will 
finally  work  its  divinely  predicted  end.  They  have  seen 
a  great  many  failures  of  similar  inventions  in  their  long 
watch  as  sentinels  of  the  sky,  and  they  foolishly  conclude 
that  those  of  our  projection  are  no  better.  Unhappy 
stars,  who,  because  they  have  themselves  made  no  ad- 
vances, but  shine  with  the  same  hght  and  revolve  in  the 
same  orbits  as  at  the  beginning ;  who,  for  the  reason  that 
they  see  no  law  of  progress  in  that  vast  mechanism  of 
Almighty  God,  in  the  natural  universe,  which  moves  in 
the  same  order,  obeys  the  same  laws,  and  fulfills  the 
same  gTand  end  as  in  the  day  when  GOD  said,  "  let  there 
be  Ught,  and  light  was  ;"  who,  because  the  Creator 
has  endowed  the  diflferent  orders  of  his  creatures  with 
powers  which  distinguish  them  as  angels  or  men — 
as  greater  or  lesser  lights  are  known  among  the  heavenly 
bodies,  and  as  one  star  diflfereth  from  another  star  in 
glory — conclude,  that  men  are  likely  to  continue  men^ 
while  in  the  body,  characterized  in  every  age  by  similar 
powers,  and  wholly  unable  to  usurp  the  thrones  of  the 
Cherubim.  Because  they  have  never  seen  a  star  leave 
the  orbit  for  which  it  was  made,  to  pass  into  another,  or 
a  planet  become  a  suu,  they  reject  the  doctrine  of  pro- 
gress, and  with  an  inconclusive  reasoning,  marvelous  in 


THE    STAR   ALDKBARAJf.  87 

OUT  eyes,  they  judge  that  the  men  of  the  mneteenth  cen- 
tury are  of  like  passions  and  of  like  intellectual  endow- 
ments with  those  of  former  generations,  whose  passage 
over  the  stage  of  life  they  have  marked  for  so  many  ages. 
But  while  the  benighted  stars  have  watched,  and  the 
red  eye  of  Aldebaran  has  been  looking  out  upon  the 
generations  of  men,  what  human  eyes  have  marked  the 
constellations  and  returned  the  gaze  of  Taui'us  ?  Who 
was  it  in  Arabia,  that,  seeking  the  cool  night  to  traverse 
the  burning  desert*  inflamed  by  the  sun,  and  charmed  with 
the  aspect  of  the  great  Star  in  the  Hyades,  gave  him  the 
poetic  and  magnificent  name  of  Aldebaran  ?  How  many 
travelers  in  that  cloudless  and  arid  climate  have  watched 
for  the  appearance  of  this  Star,  and  hailed  him  and  his  fel- 
lows with  joy — as  Southey  makes  his  pilgrim  in  the  de- 
sert exclaim, 

"  How  beautiful  is  night ! 
See  what  a  balmy  freshness  fills  the  air- 
How  beautiful  is  night]!" 

In  the  plains  of  Arabia,  in  the  days  of  the  Patriarch  Job, 
within  a  few  centuries  after  the  flood,  men  looking  at  the 
stars,  heard  voices  from  the  heavenly  host — "  Canst  thou 
bind  the  sweet  influences  of  Pleiades  or  loose  the  bands 
of  Orion?  Canst  thou  bring  forth  Mazzaroth  in  his 
season?  or  canst  thou  guide  Arcturus  and  his  sons? 
Knowest  thou  the  ordinances  of  heaven?  Canst  thou 
set  the  dominion  thereof  in  the  earth?"     Some  of  the 


88  THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN. 

Arabians  saw  God  in  the  stars,  and  said,  "He  com- 
mandeth  the  sun  and  it  riseth  not,  and  sealeth  up  the 
stars,  which  alone  spreadeth  out  the  heavens — which 
maketh  Arcturus,  Orion,  and  the  Pleiades,  and  the 
chambers  of  the  south."  Others  in  that  early  and  primi- 
tive age,  profanely  worshiped  the  host  of  Heaven,  "  kiss- 
ing their  hands"  to  the  moon,  walking  in  her  brightness, 
and  adoring  the  stars,  shining  in  their  courses.  Our  Star 
is  named  in  the  ancient  and  sacred  book  of  Job,  whose 
Chimah  and  Chesil  are  Taurus  and  Scorpio;  and  Dr. 
Hales  reckons  the  time  of  Job  by  the  allusion  made  to  Al- 
debaran  and  his  position.  Distinguished  among  his  fel- 
lows, the  chief  in  his  constellation,  how  many  eyes  in  every 
generation  have  watched  Aldebaran.  Some,  in  the  igno- 
rant yet  beautiful  simplicity  of  the  child  who  fancied  the 
stars  were  openings  to  let  glimpses  of  the  heavenly  glory 
through;  others,  in  the  dawn  of  science,  perceiving 
something  of  the  truth,  observing  the  revolutions  and 
motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  though  ignorant  of 
the  true  astronomy,  yet  conjecturing  what  is  now  demon- 
strated, that  all  "are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole," 
perverted  the  great  and  just  idea  of  mutual  influences 
and  dependencies  to  the  uses  of  judicial  Astrology, 
which,  though  false  in  its  details,  was  still  a  gTand  and 
poetic  imagination,  which  had  its  foundation  in  truth. 
How  many  eyes,  who  have  watched  the  stars,  have  since, 
it  may  be,  fathomed  their  mysteries,  having  been  clothed 


THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN.  89 

upon  with  the  spiritual  body  and  permitted  to  inspect 
the  universe  'as  we  now  survey  the  planet  we  inhabit 
As  it  is  now  demonstrated  that  thought  may  be  commu- 
nicated upon  the  lightning's  wing,  as  messengers  swifter 
than  those  creations  of  the  great  dramatist,  who,  at  their 
master's  bidding, 

"Trode  the  ooze  of  the  salt  deep, 
And  TSJi  upon  the  sharp  wind  of  the  north," 

and 

"  Put  a  girdle  round  about  the  earth 
In  forty  minutes," 

are  now  performing  the  business  of  men,  and  passing 
their  messages  without  the  perceptible  passage  of  time — 
the  doctrine  of  a  spiritual  state  and  a  spiritual  body 
ought  no  longer  to  appear  incredible  to  the  most  skep- 
tical philosophers.  A  glimpse  of  the  powers  of  the 
world  to  come  seems  to  be  given  us  in  this  mysterious 
agency,  which  breaks  over  the  barriers  of  time  and  space, 
and  is  not  amenable  to  the  laws  which  ordinarily  regu- 
late all  material  things.  As  in  the  gradations  of  creature 
existence  there  are  links  connecting  the  diflferent  orders 
of  being,  from  an  insect  to  an  angel,  so  there  may  be 
between  the  material  and  spiritual  world — ^between  the 
natural  body  and  the  spiritual  body — between  the  life 
that  now  is  and  the  Ufe  to  come — an  agency  which, 
while  belonging  to  the  one,  manifests  something  of  the 
powers  of  the  other.  Who  can,  with  any  consistency, 
impeach  the  doctrine,  that  the  soul  in  another  life  may 
4* 


90  THE    STAR    ALDEBARAN. 

be  clothed  upon  with  an  organization,  in  which  it  shall 
pass  with  a  rapidity  exceeding  that  of  light,  seeing  that 
it  can  employ  an  agent  here  whose  motion  is  independent 
of  time — ^whose  speed  is  unlimited  by  space  ? 

It  would  be  no  unfounded  and  visionary,  speculation, 
then,  if  there  were  no  warrant  from  Sacred  Scripture, 
which  would  transport  in  another  organization  to  this 
distant  Star,  those  who  in  time  gazed  into  the  eye  of 
Taurus,  in  the  watches  of  the  night,  desirous  to  know 
the  secrets  of  that  glorious  galaxy, 

"Forever  singing  as  they  shine, 

♦  The  hand  that  made  us  is  divine.'  " 

To  them  Aldebaran  is  now  seen  a  glorious  sun,  around 
whom  revolves  a  vast  planetary  system — a  world,  filled 
with  life,  to  whose  inhabitants  our  planet  is  invisible,  and 
who  behold  the  sun  of  our  system  a  twinkling  star 
adorning  their  night,  as  ours  is  illuminated  by  the 
Hyades,  in  that  beautiful  system  of  reciprocity  and 
mutual  dependence  which  characterizes  the  material 
universe,  and  is  analogous  to  that  great  law  of  love  that 
binds  all  intelligences  in  the  moral  government  of  God. 
Perhaps  those  to  whose  vision  the  secrets  of  Aldebaran 
have  been  exposed,  have  found  this  law  unbroken  there, 
and  discovered  in  that  great  world  a  race  who  have 
never  been  corrupted  by  the  mad  ambition  to  become 
as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil — who  have  never  been 
bewildered  by  proclamations  of  a  law  of  progress  from 
that  arch  rebel  who  is  "  King  over  all  the  children  of 


THE    STAR    ALDEBARAN.  91 

pride,"  that "  Coyering  Cherub"  who  once  sat  "  amid  the 
stones  of  fire,"  but  fell  from  his  high  estate,  because  he 
would  be  higher,  and  now, 

"  Prince  of  the  fallen,  around  him  sweep 
The  billows  of  the  burning  deep." 

Perhaps  the  temptation,  "ye  shall  be  as  gods,"  and  "ye 
shall  not  surely  die,"  was  resisted  in  Aldebaran,  whose 
simple  inhabitants  yet  rejoice  in  their  original  holiness, 
content  with  their  Eden,  and  knowing  neither  sin,  sor- 
row, or  death.     We  may  suppose  that  they  who  now 
with  angel's  flight  pass  roimd  the  mighty  orb,  which 
was  once  seen  by  them  as  a  twinkling  star,  behold  an 
unbroken  law  and  a  perpetuated  paradise.     They  survey 
an  innocent  world,  creatures  uncontaminated  by  sin,  hap- 
piness unmingled  with  the  alloy  of  transgression.     No 
curse  has  entered  there — no  cry  of  violence  is  heard — 
no  voice  of  brother's  blood  ascending  to  the  heavens, 
calling  for  vengeance.     No  warring  elements  contend  for 
mastery — emblems  of  the  unruly  passions  they  are  com- 
missioned to  chastise — no  ministers  of  death,  pale-visaged 
and  remorseless,  pursuing  with  hot  haste  the  fellen  and 
condemned — whose  life,  for  their  sins,  is  made  as  a  vapor, 
and  whose  "  days  are  swifter  than  a  weaver's  shuttle." 
The  king  of  terrors  has  no  dominion  where  sin  has  had  no 
entrance,  and  the  shadow  of  his  fearful  power  has  never 
fiillen  on  Aldebaran.     Those  who  dwell  in  that  fortunate 
world  know  nothing  of  evil,  and  have  no  more  thought 


92  THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN. 

of  becoming  gods  than  has  Aldebaran  himself  of 
leaving  his  sphere  to  revolve  in  the  eccentric  orbit  of  a 
comet.  Pride,  passion,  envy,  and  revenge,  are  unknown ; 
covetousness,  ambition,  and  cruelty,  are  words  not  found 
in  their  language ;  and  having  fulfilled  their  day  in  peace 
and  happiness,  they  pass  from  that  form  of  life  which 
confines  them  to  their  particular  world,  to  become  citi- 
zens of  the  universe — as  Enoch  was  translated  that  he 
should  not  see  death,  and  "  was  not,  for  God  took  him." 
So  in  the  unfallen  worlds,  the  change  from  the  first  and 
inferior  form  of  Hfe  to  the  second  and  superior,  may  be 
without  pain,  surprise,  or  fear.  In  the  entire  frame- work 
of  the  universe  there  are  two  manifest  designs,  two  dis- 
tinct ends :  the  one  is  found  in  the  isolated  world,  intended 
for  the  first  form  of  life  and  observation  to  the  rational 
creatures,  in  which  they  are  confined  by  the  impassable 
barrier  of  an  atmosphere,  and  from  which  they  cannot 
escape,  but  by  a  radical  change  in  their  mode  of  life,  by 
passing  from  an  animal  and  natural  into  a  spiritual  body, 
subject  to  different  laws;  the  other  is  seen  in  the  entire 
system,  designed  for  the  second  and  higher  order  of  hfe, 
in  which,  released  from  its  former  and  limited  organization, 
the  soul  enters  upon  the  Universe,  and  becomes  a  citizen 
of  the  commonwealth  of  the  entire  material  creation,  and 
is  at  Hberty,  unless  prevented  for  transgTession,  to  range 
over  the  whole,  and  to  inspect  it  with  the  same  freedom 
with  which  a  single  planet  or  world  was  surveyed  in  the 


THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN.  93 

first  and  inferior  form  of  existence.  We  think  that  this 
is  indicated  in  the  structure  of  the  Universe ;  and  that, 
knowing  that  our  world,  and  all  single  and  particular 
worlds  were  made  for  the  inspection  of  rational  creatures, 
we  are  bound  to  infer,  that  all  suns  and  systems  in  the 
ascending  series,  to  the  whole  vast  and  to  us  infinite 
creation,  which  is  yet  one  in  the  correspondence  and  de- 
pendence of  its  parts  and  the  unity  of  its  plan,  are  de- 
signed to  be  seen  and  comprehended,  surveyed  and 
examined,  in  a  higher  form  of  hfe.  To  doubt  this  is  to 
disregard  the  ob^^ous  analogy  which  is  presented  by  our 
own  position  and  powers,  in  respect  to  our  world  and  the 
present  existence.  Has  God  made  planets  to  be  in- 
habited by  rational  creatures,  who  are  capable  of  survey- 
ing and  mapping  its  parts,  calculating  its  powers,  of  mea- 
suring its  dimensions,  of  enjoying  and  admiring  its  beau- 
ties— and  has  he  not  made  the  entire  system  for  the 
same  purpose,  to  be  seen  and  known  in  a  higher  form  of 
life,  as  its  parts  are  in  an  inferior  ?  Is  there  really  any 
thing  incredible  or  even  difficult  in  this,  on  philosophical 
principles  ?  Are  there  not  changes  in  the  lower  forms 
of  life  and  within  our  own  inspection,  as  marked  and 
marvelous  ?  The  water-worm,  that,  in  its  dark  and  slimy 
bed,  apprehends  only  the  few  inches  of  sand  in  which  it 
makes  its  circuit,  and  the  few  shells  which  lie  within  its 
observation,  having  fulfilled  its  first  mode  of  organic  life, 
rises  to  the  surface,  casts  off  its  skin,  which  it  leaves  a 


94  THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN. 

dead  thing  floating  on  the  water,  and  rises  into  the  atmo- 
sphere, and  looks  upon  the  sun,  still  an  insect  indeed, 
but  an  insect  now  with  wings,  beautifully  appareled  and 
capable  of  a  flight  and  of  a  survey,  which,  by  contrast 
with  its  former  condition,  is  as  remarkable  as  a  transfer 
from  a  planet  to  a  universe. 

But,  it  is  time  to  forbear,  for  some  of  you  may  suspect 
me  of  a  design  to  preach,  rather  than  philosophize — a 
thing  unpardonable  before  a  literary  association  and 
when  dealing  with  so  fanciful  a  subject  as  a  Star.  Yet 
we  must  be  allowed  to  magnify  Aldebaran,  that  he  may 
shine  among  the  other  stars  which  have  attracted  your 
attention,  and  won  so  much  deserved  applause.  "Every 
man  for  himself,"  is  the  motto  of  our  world,  whatever  is 
the  maxim  of  the  Aldcbaranites ;  of  course,  every  man 
for  his  own  star — to  do  the  best  he  can  to  make  it 
twinkle  among  its  fellows.  Besides,  have  not  progress, 
self-reliance,  self-improvement,  and  other  matters  of  glori- 
fication, been  the  great  themes  of  the  winter,  ably  urged, 
powerfully  vindicated ;  so  that  those  of  the  contrary 
opinion,  hide  their  diminished  heads,  vdth  the  sole  con- 
solation that  if  the  doctrine  of  progress  be  true,  they 
belong  to  the  movement,  and  if  self-reliance  be  the  grand 
secret  of  success,  they  have  only  to  put  a  good  face  on 
affairs,  and  make  up  by  a  commendable  self-esteem,  for 
the  slights  and  neglects  of  the  public.  By  the  law  of  pro- 
gress, ought  not  the  new  invariably  to  surpass  the  o/c?, 


THX    STAR   ALDEBARAN.  95 

and  should  not  the  last  lecture  be  always  reckoned  the 
best  ?  While  upon  the  popular  principle  of  self-reliance, 
is  not  a  man  justified  in  standing  to  his  own  opinions, 
right  or  wrong,  if  all  the  world  were  against  him  ? 

But  as  one  popular  fallacy  sometimes  destroys  another, 
we  would  respectfully  suggest,  that  some  future  lecturer 
take  up  the  subject  of  the  omnipotence  of  public  senti- 
ment It  would  be  easy  to  show  in  the  first  place,  that 
majorities  are  always  right;  and,  secondly,  that  they 
should  always  rule ;  and,  thirdly,  that  he  who  refuses  to 
follow  their  lead,  ought  to  be  forthwith  hung  up,  being 
worthy  of  death,  as  a  terror  to  evil  doers,  unless,  indeed, 
that  long  desired  law,  abolishing  the  death  penalty, 
shoidd  be  enacted,  which  is  to  constitute  the  crowning 
demonstration  of  our  progress.  The  lecturer  might  show 
that  all  the  responsibilities  of  indi^ddual  opinion  are 
avoided  by  adherance  to  majorities — all  the  trouble  of 
thinking,  and  all  the  odium  of  singularity.  He  might  add, 
that  the  age  of  heroes  and  prophets  has  passed — that 
in  the  progress  of  human  aflfairs,  it  had  come  to  be  seen 
that  the  only  just  dominion  is  that  of  public  sentiment, 
and  that  the  multiplication  of  cyphers,  whose  product 
was  formerly  thought  to  be  nothing,  is  now  demonstrated 
to  give  a  grand  sum  total,  in  the  new  arithmetic ;  or,  in 
other  words,  while  the  individual  (by  the  supposition)  is 
a  mere  cypher,  whose  opinions  are  of  no  importance,  the 
judgments  of  individuals  in  the  aQoreffate  are  the  per- 


©»• 


96  THE    STAR   ALDEBABAK. 

fection  of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  But  is  self-reliance 
compatible  with  a  proper  submission  to  popular  opinion  ? 
Is  it  not  swallowed  up  as  were  the  little  serpents  of  the 
Egyptian  sorcerers  by  the  serpent  rod  of  the  new  pro- 
phet, whose  name  is  LEGION? 

But  if  there  are  Philosophers  in  Aldebaran — ^which  is 
highly  probable — ^if  literary  associations  and  lectures  are 
established  in  that  distant  orb — it  is  possible  that  their 
views  might  differ  altogether  from  ours  on  the  subject 
of  self-reliance.  In  their  ignorance  and  simplicity,  they 
might  give  utterance  to  such  sentiments  as  the  follow- 
ing:— "We  are  happy  in  having  escaped  the  fate  of  the 
apostate  angels  who  fell  from  their  high  estate,  as  it  has 
been  revealed  to  us,  by  the  sin  of  pride,  forgetting  their 
dependence  upon  God,  in  whom  all  creatures  Uve  and 
move  and  have  their  being — they  set  up  for  themselves 
and  lost  their  thrones  in  heaven ;  it  is  intimated  in  our 
Scriptures,  also,  that  in  an  obscure  and  distant  world, 
a  similar  ruin  resulted  from  a  similar  cause.  Beware, 
then,  0  ye  dwellers  of  Aldebaran,  of  a  like  presumption. 
Trust  not  in  yourselves,  but  in  Him  who  made  you. 
Rely  not  upon  your  own  wisdom,  but  upon  His,  whose 
understanding  is  infinite.  Glory  not  in  your  own  strength, 
for  there  is  no  power  but  of  God.  In  your  most  arduous 
efforts  seek  His  aid,  without  whom  we  can  do  nothing, 
and  who,  when  we  work  in  this  necessary  dependence 
of  the  creature  upon  the  Creator,  works  in  us  to  will 


THE    STAR   ALDKBARAW.  97 

and  to  do,  so  that  we  can  do  all  things  through  the  divine 
assistance.  The  security  of  all  the  innocent  and  holy  is 
in  their  felt  dependence;  the  misery  of  all  fallen  beings 
is  their  self-reliance.  In  this  ignorant  and  simple  way, 
it  may  be  the  Philosophers  of  our  Star  speak  to  their 
admiring,  because  unenlightened  congregations.  It  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  that  there  is  an  old  Book  in  our  world 
which  contains  similar  antiquated  sentiments,  which  says, 
among  other  things,  that,  "He  that  trusteth  in  his  own 
heart  is  a  fool ;"  and  it  is  upon  record  that  a  stalwart  old 
fenactic,  by  name  Oliver  Cromwell,  who  believed  in  this 
book,  told  his  soldiers  on  the  eve  of  a  great  battle,  which 
he  won,  as  he  strangely  enough  did  the  most  he  fought, 
"to  put  their  trust  in  God  and  keep  their  powder  dry," 
placing  self-reliance  in  a  secondary  and  inferior  position, 
while  our  progressive  philosophy  has  made  it  the  first,  if 
not  the  sole  means  of  success.  But  no  better  light  has 
beamed  on  Aldebaran,  no  new  philosophies,  no  social 
systems  of  human  invention;  they  go  along  the  old 
beaten  track  of  duty,  and  obedience,  and  dependence, 
and  if  ever  our  rare  inventions  enable  us  to  communicate 
with  this  unfortunate  world,  (and  who  can  limit  our  pro- 
gress?) we  ought  at  once  to  send  missionaries  to  its  be- 
nighted inhabitants  that  they,  like  us,  may  become  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil.  We  might  transfer  to  them  po- 
litical apostles  from  the  extremes  of  both  our  great  par- 
ties without  any  irreparable  loss  to  ourselves,  who  should 
teach  them  the  principles  of  progressive  democracy. 


98  THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN. 

We  might  also  spare  without  great  damage  to  our 
world,  a  few  of  those  renowned  discoverers  who  invent 
new  gospels  every  year,  to  instruct  the  Aldebaranites  in 
the  mystery  of  a  progressive  religion  and  to  inform  their 
ignorance  in  regard  to  the  causes  of  apostacy  and  trans- 
gression, resulting  not  from  sin,  as  their  musty  old  books 
declare,  but  from  the  defective  social  systems  under  which 
God  placed  angels  and  men — a  remedy  for  which,  thanks 
to  our  progress,  has  now  been  discovered.  In  fact,  we 
might  colonize  a  portion  of  our  pohtical  and  religious  re- 
formers and  of  our  progressive  pliilosophers,  with  high 
advantage  to  ourselves,  whatever  might  be  the  result  to 
Aldebaran,  and  as  charity  begins  at  home,  their  exodus 
as  missionaries  from  us  would  wear  a  highly  philanthro- 
pic and  benevolent  aspect 

Possibly  this  scheme  might  result  in  annexation,  as 
did  the  early  emigration  of  a  band  of  Reformers  to 
Texas,  and  if  Aldebaran  should  prove  refractory  and  our 
means  of  communication  would  enable  us  to  transport 
the  munitions  of  war,  we  might  reform  them  as  we  have 
the  Mexicans,  by  the  eloquence  of  cannon,  and  convince 
them  by  the  gentle  persuasives  of  powder  and  ball,  and 
enlighten  their  darkened  understandings  with  bombs  and 
burnings. 

Unhappily  it  is  not  demonstrable  that  these  desirable 
results  can  be  immediately  accomplished,  or  that  our 
communications  with  Aldebaran  will  be  speedily  opened 


THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN.  99 

One  hates  to  question  any  thing  in  the  line  of  progress, 
but  candor  compels  us  to  say  that  there  are  difl&culties 
of  distance  and  atmosphere  to  be  overcome,  which  lead 
us  to  conclude  that  this  achievement  will  be  reserved  for 
a  future,  and,  of  course^  a  more  enUghtened  generation. 

But  unconscious  of  these  machinations  against  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  his  inhabitants,  Aldebaran  shines 
on,  happy  in  his  comparative  ignorance  of  our  remark- 
able world,  esteeming  us  only  as  one  of  the  lesser  hghts, 
made  to  revolve  around  and  depend  upon  those  great 
luminaries,  who,  with  himself  are  centres  of  systems — 
suns,  in  whose  light  and  heat  the  inferior  planets  rejoice. 

Perhaps  Aldebaran  and  the  other  Stars,  if  they  were 
fully  advised  of  our  improvements  and  advances,  and 
could  be  made  to  appreciate  them,  would  say  to  the 
Earth  as  the  Cedars  of  Lebanon  are  represented  in  the 
Scriptures  to  have  said  to  the  bramble :  "  Come  thou, 
and  reign  over  us,"  to  which,  with  the  briar,  we  might 
be  supposed  to  make  the  magnificent  reply :  "  Come,  and 
put  your  trust  under  my  shadow." 

But  other  than  fanciful  or  satirical  thoughts  are  sug- 
gested by  the  night-watchers — those  glorious  sentinels 
who  indicate  the  vast  and  yet  undiscovered  army  who 
lie  back  of  them  in  the  profound  depths  of  space. 

How  immeasurable  is  that  Omnipotence  which  fash- 
ioned these  vast  bodies — which  communicates  and  con- 
tinues their  motions — which  holds  them  in  their  courses 


100  THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN. 

— which  works  their  grand  and  complicated  mechanism 
without  disruption,  disorder,  or  confusion. 

What  contrasts  of  permanency  and  continuance  with 
change  and  decay,  arise  in  the  mind  from  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  fixed  stars  from  this  world  of  ours !  The  red 
eye  of  Taurus,  that  looked  out  upon  the  fresh-wrought 
capstones  of  the  greatest  of  the  Egyptian  Pyramids, 
raised  to  their  lofty  position  amid  the  voices  of  shouting 
millions,  which,  hke  the  noise  of  many  waters,  celebrated 
the  completion  of  a  monument  which  was  to  perpetuate 
the  fame  of  their  king  and  the  glory  of  his  subjects — 
now  shines  upon  its  time-worn  summit  with  the  same 
lustre,  though  the  name  of  the  monarch  is  forgotten,  and 
the  dust  of  the  people  by  whose  labor  it  was  erected,  has 
covered  and  concealed  its  base. 

The  beams  of  Aldebaran  rested  upon  the  towers  of 
Babylon  in  her  day  of  pride,  and  gleamed  on  the  gigan- 
tic image  in  the  plain  of  Dura,  to  whom  all  nations 
and  tongues  were  commanded  to  do  homage  by  the 
proud  Prince,  who  filled  the  throne  of  the  first  Universal 
Monarchy ;  the  same  star  now  glistens  on  the  waters  of 
the  Euphrates,  which  have  long  since  buried  beneath 
their  marshes  the  last  memorial  of  the  golden  city  which 
sat  queen  among  the  nations. 

That  race  of  giants,  who  founded  the  hundred-gated 
Thebes,  ages  before  the  wing  of  the  Eoman  Eagle  was 
fledged  for  conquest — who  built  the  temples  which  Homer 


THE    STAR  ALDEBARAN.  101 

celebrated,  which  mock  the  efforts  of  succeeding  gene- 
rations— who  designed  and  elevated  that  wonderful  statue 
of  Memnon,  which  the  morning  sun  made  vocal — who 
wrought  the  mysterious  and  massive  features  of  the 
Sphinx—saw  Aldebaran  gild  their  yet  unrivalled  monu- 
ments of  art,  genius,  and  mechanical  power; — their 
pigmy  successors,  barbarous  and  hunger  smitten,  wander 
by  the  light  of  the  same  star  among  ruins,  the  grandeur 
of  which  has  hardly  been  impaired  by  the  flight  of  thirty 
centuries — for  Memnon  and  the  Sphinxes  still  keep  watch 
and  ward  over  "Thebais  Hecatompylos." 

The  soldier  who  watched  by  night  upon  the  walls  of 
Tyre,  the  ancient  Mistress  of  the  Sea,  when  Alexander 
was  thundeiing  at  her  gates,  saw  the  beams  of  Alde- 
baran cast  upon  the  fleets  and  armies,  which  girt,  in  their 
deadly  embrace,  the  Emporium  of  the  Commerce  of  the 
East,  "whose  merchants  were  princes;" — no  wall,  no 
sentinel,  no  towers  or  ships,  or  hostile  legions,  sees  Pa- 
lilicium  now ;  he  shines  on  a  bare  rock  where  a  few  poor 
fishermen  spread  their  nets  to  dry. 

Upon  a  collection  of  rude  huts  on  an  island  in  the 
Seine,  and  still  ruder  fortifications  of  the  wild  Gauls, 
looked  the  Star  Aldebaran  two  thousand  years  ago — 
now  the  same  light  rests  upon  a  city  of  a  million  of  souls, 
to  which  the  civilization,  the  arts  the  literature,  and  the 
profligacy  of  Athens  and  Corinth  have  been  transferred, 
and  flourish  with  somethmg  hke  their  pristine  vigor. 


102  THE    STAR   ALDEBARAN. 

Upon  Druidical  rites  and  human  sacrifices  shone  Pali- 
licium  once,  in  a  distant  and  petty  isle  of  the  Northern 
Atlantic,  which  the  imperial  Caesars  thought  hardly  worth 
their  conquest — upon  the  same  spot  the  modern  Babylon 
now  rears  her  Christian  Temples,  sending  her  fleets  to 
every  sea,  her  colonies  to  every  continent — the  Star  of 
Dominion  rests  upon  the  ancient  Brittannia  soon  to  dawn 
upon  the  dwelling-place  of  her  sons  in  the  New  World, 
for,  "Westward  the  Star  of  Empire  takes  its  way." 

Less  than  four  centuries  since,  upon  the  bleak  inhos- 
pitable coasts  of  an  unknown  continent,  roamed  a  few 
savage  hunters  and  warriors  in  the  wilderness,  who 
thought  the  stars  shone  to  light  the  brave  and  virtuous 
Indians  to  the  happy  hunting  fields  in  the  sky.  That 
wilderness  is  now  occupied  by  the  teeming  millions  of  a 
vast  confederacy  of  States,  before  whom  the  forests 
and  their  tenants  have  disappeared — ^who  have  leveled 
the  mountains  and  filled  up  the  valleys — ^who  have 
chosen  their  emblems  from  the  heavenly  host  and  spangled 
their  banner  with  stars.  That  banner  now  visits  every 
sea  and  floats  triumphantly  over  conquered  cities,  contin- 
ually adding  new  States  to  that  Galaxy,  which  symbo- 
hzes  a  power  that  already  casts  the  dawning  light  of  its 
destined  pre-eminence  upon  the  startled  monarchies  of 
the  Old  World.  And  the  flattered  night- watchers  follow 
the  star-spangled  banner  with  earnest  gaze  along  its 
destined  path  of  conquest ;  and  Aldebaran  gazes  out  on  all 
those  changes  with  the  same  calm  and  conscious  smile. 


THE    STAR   ALDSBARAN.  103 

And  over  the  ruins  of  the  new  Dominions  shall  Pali- 
licium  shine;  upon  their  broken  power  and  departed 
glory  shall  the  eye  of  Aldebaran  gaze ;  and  this  young 
Empire,  like  its  eagle  emblem,  spreading  its  wings  for 
conquest,  shall  fall,  like  its  predecessors,  in  the  paths  of 
progress,  and  be  broken  forever,  and  the  pitiful  stars 
shall  look  down  upon  the  wreck  of  our  glory,  and  say, 
alas,  alas,  how  art  thou  fallen,  O  son  of  the  morning,  and 
made  thy  bed  in  the  dust,  and  become  like  to  those  that 
have  gone  before  thee  into  the  sides  of  the  pit! 

Thy  grave,  O  Hearer,  shall  Aldebaran  watch,  when 
the  fire  of  thine  eye  is  quenched,  when  the  bloom  on 
thy  cheek  has  faded,  and  guard  the  portals  of  thy  grave 
until  the  day  when  the  Master  of  Life  shall  cast  down 
the  throne  and  break  {he  dominion  of  death.  Thy 
spirit  will  soon  leave  its  house  of  clay,  and  pass  out  upon 
the  universe — and,  perchance,  to  this  distant  Star  thou 
mayest  wing  thine  uninterrupted  way ;  and  bethink  thee, 
as  thou  survey  est  its  glories,  that  its  light  is  resting  upon 
the  remote  planet  of  thy  birth,  and  glistening  upon  the 
marble  that  aflfection  has  reared  to  thy  memory,  over  the 
deserted  and  decaying  tabernacle  that  once  enshrined 
thy  soul,  and  which  is  again  to  receive  it  when  raised  a 
spiritual  and  incorruptible  body  by  that  word  of  power, 
that  from  emptiness  and  nothingness,  from  darkness  and 
chaos,  summoned  at  the  beginning,  matter  and  motion, 
light  and  life. 


104.  THE    STAR    ALDiiiBARAN. 

What  an  image  of  immutability  and  eternity  is  a  fixed 
Star,  pointing  us  to  a  future  and  endless  existence — -to 
another  and  a  better  life  ;  a  light-house  of  the  skies,  di- 
recting the  mariner  on  the  ocean  of  hfe  to  a  haven 
of  eternal  rest ;  a  window  in  the  heavens,  revealing 
glimpses  of  a  glory  which  eye  hath  not  seen,  which  ear 
hath  not  heard  ;  an  orh,  the  magnitude  of  which  teaches 
that  true  and  divinely  appointed  progress  which  consists 
in  the  expectation  of,  and  the  preparations  for,  another 
and  higher  organization,  when  the  walls  of  our  earthly 
house  shall  be  broken  ;  an  eye  beholding  all  things,  pene- 
trating the  secrets  of  night,  apt  emblem  of  that  Omni- 
science with  whom  the  darkness  and  the  light  are  alike ! 

Happy  will  it  be  for  us  if  we  learn  the  lessons  which 
are  taught  by  the  heavenly  Host.  Fortunate  will  the 
speaker  to-night  esteem  himself  if  Aldebaran  meets  with 
your  favor,  and  is  allowed  to  take  a  humble  place  behind 
those  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  which  have  shone  upon 
this  congregation  from  evening  to  evening  in  this  place, 
from  whom  if  our  Star  differs,  it  is  with  all  respect.  None 
will  be  offended  who  are  lovers  of  truth,  which  is  always 
more  readily  elicited  by  discussion,  and,  if  any  are  dis- 
turbed by  our  comparatively  feeble  and  unequal  advocacy 
of  old  fashioned  opinions,  they  will  only  manifest  their 
own  want  of  confidence  in  the  popular  dogmas  which 
they  uphold. 


LECTURE  IV 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR, 

FROM  WHENCE 

SOLOMON  BROUGHT  GOLD. 


A  GREAT  diversity  of  opinion  has  existed  among  the 
learned,  in  regard  to  the  locality  of  Ophir,  from  whence 
king  Solomon  obtained  gold.  No  satisfactory  clue  to 
its  position  has  been  found,  either  in  sacred  or  profane 
history.  Some  writers,  reasoning  from  the  etymology  of 
the  word,  which  is  said  to  signify  dusty  have  applied  the 
term  "  Ophir"  to  almost]  every  spot  where  gold  dust  has 
been  found  in  abundance.  Others  have  rested  their 
conclusions  upon  a  comparison  of  the  Hebrew  word 
Ophir  with  names  in  diflferent  countries,  having  a  similar 
sound;  as,  for  instance,  the  port  of  Aphir  in  Arabia, 
mentioned  by  Arrian.  By  a  transposition  of  the  Hebrew 
letters,  among  other  conjectures,  Ophir  has  been  made 
synonymous  with  Peru,  in  South  America.  The  fol- 
lowing countries  have  bcon  buggcstwi  by  different  au- 
5 


106  THE    LAND    Of    OPHIR. 

thors  :  Melindah,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  Angola,  Car- 
thage, St.  Domingo,  Mexico,  New  Giiinea,  Urphe,  an 
island  in  the  Red  Sea,  and  Ormus,  in  the  Persian  Gult 
Bochart  has  argued  for  Ceylon,  anciently  called  Tapro- 
bana;  Lipenius,  relying  on  the  authority  of  Josephus 
and  others,  makes  Ophir,  the  golden  land,  to  include  all 
the  countries  bounded  by  the  Eastern  seas — from  Cey- 
lon to  the  Indian  Archipelago.  That  Ophir  was  situated 
at  a  great  distance  from  India,  may  be  proved  from  the 
time  taken  by  the  fleet  of  Solomon  to  make  the  voyage. 
"Every  three  years  once  came  the  ships  of  Tarshish 
bringing  gold,"  is  the  brief  record  of  this  ancient  voyage 
in  which  the  king  of  Tyre,  the  friend  and  ally  of  Solo- 
mon, was  concerned.  "  Hiram  sent  Solomon,"  says  the 
inspired  Historian,  "  ships  and  servants  that  had  know- 
ledge of  the  sea,  and  they  went  with  the  servants  of  Solo- 
mon to  Ophir,  and  took  thence  four  hundred  and  fifty 
talents  of  gold  and  brought  them  to  King  Solomon." 
Tyre  was  at  this  time  the  mistress  of  the  sea,  the  com- 
mercial metropolis  of  the  world.  The  aid  of  her  expe- 
rienced mariners  may  have  been  necessary  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  plans  of  the  Hebrew  monarch,  as 
Palestine  was  never  a  maritime  country;  but  the  pas- 
sages quoted  throw  all  the  light  on  the  subject  which  is 
furnished  in  the  Scriptures,  and  to  the  imagination  is  left 
the  filling  up  of  the  details  of  the  history  of  the  voyage 
to  Ophir.     What  seas  did  these  old  mariners  traverse  ? 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  107 

What  coasts  before  unknown  did  they  survey  ?  Upon 
what  spice-scented  islands  did  they  repose,  in  their  long 
and  weary  voyage  ?  What  new  and  varied  forms  of  life 
appeared,  till  then  unknown  ?  What  storms  were  encoun- 
tered upon  the  untraversed  oceans,  over  which  they 
sailed  without  compass  or  chart?  How  many  vessels 
went  down  on  the  return  of  that  Hebrew-Tyrian  fleet, 
broken  by  the  seas  and  the  length  of  the  way,  and  hang 
now  suspended  in  those  unfathomable  depths  which  pre- 
serve and  retain  un decayed  the  deposits  of  the  past — 
the  yellow  ore  undimmed,  still  glistening  from  the  open 
seams  of  the  wrecks,  around  which  play  the  monsters  of 
the  deep  with  fixed  inquisitive  gaze — while  reposing  there 
in  his  last  sleep,  the  Hebrew  mariner,  his  form  untouched 
by  time  or  change,  seems  yet  to  guard  the  treasure 
which  he  brought  out  of  Ophir,  though  the  dark-eyed 
daughter  of  Abraham,  who  looked  out  of  the  lattice  for 
her  sea-faring  lover  in  vain,  has  been  dust  for  thirty 
centuries  ?  With  what  glad  feet  did  those  who  escaped 
the  perils  of  this  voyage  of  years,  press  the  soil  of 
Judea?  With  what  rapture  did  they  gaze  once  more 
upon  the  vine-clad  hills  and  fertile  valleys  of  the  land 
of  promise?  What  joyful  greetings  of  friends  and 
households?  What  "moving  accidents  by  flood  and 
field  "  for  all  inquirers  ?  What  marvels  of  the  Land  of 
Ophir  filled  all  ears  ?  What  crowds  accompanied  the  rich 
freights  borne  from  the  port  of  £zion-Gebcr  to  Jcru< 


108  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

salem,  the  city  of  peace,  to  adorn  the  temple  of  the  living 
God,  whose  golden  roofs,  flashing  back  the  morning  sun- 
light, or  reflecting  the  evening  rays,  should  be  a  per- 
petual memorial  of  that  daring  voyage,  and  of  Ophir, 
the  golden  land,  whose  treasures  had  enriched  the 
country  of  the  Prophets  and  the  city  of  the  King  of 
kings  ? 

With  these  suggestions  of  the  imagination,  what  au- 
gust memories  of  an  early  civilization,  the  monuments 
of  whose  grandeur  yet  survive  to  mock  the  efforts  of 
the  moderns — of  an  ancient  dispensation  of  that  holy 
faith,  which,  above  the  ruins  of  Judaism,  still  lives  in  all 
the  vigor  and  beauty  of  its  perpetual  youth,  arise  before 
us,  like  giant  shadows  of  the  olden  time  !  The  voyage 
to  Ophir  recalls  the  day  when  Solomon,  the  most  mag- 
nificent as  well  as  the  wisest  of  monarchs,  swayed  a 
sceptre  which  extended  over  the  most  fertile  and  popu- 
lous portions  of  Asia  Minor — when  Tyre  was  the  Mart 
of  nations,  at  whose  fairs  were  found  the  merchants  of 
all  lands — where  came  the  Queen  of  Sheba  to  hear  the 
wisdom  of  Solomon  and  survey  the  glories  of  that  temple, 
the  fame  of  which  had  gone  out  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
That  glory  has  departed.  Judgment-smitten  Ues  the  city 
of  the  great  king,  the  prey  of  every  spoiler.  Fire  has 
consumed  that  gorgeous  temple.  The  gold  of  Ophir 
which  adorned  its  cornices,  is  buried  beneath  those  sacred 
foundations,  which,  first  profaned  by  the  Chaldean  and 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  109 

afterwards  by  the  Roman,  are  burthened  now  with  the 
third  "abomination  of  desolation  set  up  in  the  holy- 
place,"  the  Mosque  of  Omar — where,  on  the  Hill  of  Zion, 
the  Turk  has  erected  the  altars  of  the  false  prophet  of 
Mecca.  But,  above  this  ocean  of  ruin,  shining  out  like  a 
star  over  the  changes  and  destructions  of  earth,  the  wis- 
dom of  Solomon  survives ;  and,  radiant  with  divine  light, 
exerts  a  wider  influence  now  than  when  uttered  from  the 
throne  of  Da\id.  After  the  lapse  of  ninety  generations, 
the  Proverbs  of  the  Wise  Man  are  translated  into  almost 
every  language  of  the  globe  we  inhabit,  and  are  reve- 
rently read  by  more  than  two  hundred  millions  of  our 
race. 

The  time  has  now  come  when  new  speculations  in 
regard  to  Ophir,  the  gold-bearing  land,  are  naturally  sug- 
gested by  new  discoveries  which  seem  to  realize  the 
dreams  of  Pinoza  and  his  associates,  of  the  Dorado 
which  ever  fled  before  them,  mocking  their  expectation, 
like  the  fabled  waters  of  Tantalus.  The  golden  land  for 
which  the  Spanish  soldier,  half  knight  and  half  robber, 
ravaged  a  continent  in  vain,  is  found  at  last,  not  by  the 
Spaniard  or  his  mongrel  and  degenerate  descendants,  but 
by  the  sons  of  the  yeomen  who  settled  the  northern  por- 
tions of  the  continent,  whose  motive  in  abandoning  their 
homes  in  Europe  was  neither  the  lust  of  gold  or  of  con- 
quest The  children  of  the  English  Puritan  reap  the 
rich  harvest,  in  search  of  which  the  Castilian  adventurer 


110  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

bartered  faith  and  honor,  and  failed  at  last  God  has 
visited  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children. 
Spain  Ues  a  wreck  among  the  nations  who  once  trembled 
at  her  power.  The  Spanish  colonies  on  this  continent 
are  monuments  of  the  divine  indignation.  The  curse 
pronounced  upon  the  man  who  should  rebuild  the  walls 
of  Jericho,  has  been  fulfilled  in  the  case  of  the  Spaniard 
and  his  empire  in  the  south.  "  He  shall  lay  the  founda- 
tions thereof  in  his  first-born,  and  in  his  youngest  son 
he  shall  set  up  the  gates  of  it."  The  descendants  of 
the  conscientious  and  self-denying  Puritans  have  van- 
quished Mexico  with  greater  facihty  than  that  with 
which  Cortes  destroyed  the  Empire  of  Montezuma,  and 
have  found  and  possessed  in  the  North,  Cahfornia,  the 
true  Dorado,  which  the  Castilian  ever  sought  in  vain,  in 
the  South. 

May  we  not  claim  that  California  is  the  ancient  Ophir, 
without  exciting  a  smile,  when  learned  and  discreet  men 
have  attempted  to  trace  the  route  of  the  Hebrew-Tynan 
fleet  of  Solomon  to  the  coasts  of  Peru  on  the  shores  of 
St.  Domingo  ?  May  we  not  protect  our  theme  from  ridi- 
cule behind  the  gravity  of  the  ancients,  whose  theories 
are  more  fanciful  and  more  improbable  than  any  we 
intend  to  advance  ?  If  renowned  scholars  and  geogra- 
phers have  made  the  fleet  of  the  great  king  pass  the 
stormy  Cape  of  Southern  Africa  to  reach  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  New  World,  may  we  not  be  allowed  to  sail 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  Ill 

them  coast-wise,  according  to  the  practice  of  the  early 
navigators,  to  the  western  shore  ?  An  inspection  of  the 
Biap  of  the  world  will  show  the  most  incredulous  that 
such  a  route  exists.  From  the  ancient  port  of  Ezion-Geber 
upon  the  eastern  arm  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  ships  of  Solo- 
mon pass  into  the  Sea  or  Gulf  of  Arabia;  they  coast 
along  the  well  known  shores  of  the  Arabian  Peninsula — 
thence  along  the  western  coast  of  the  old  Hindoostan,  to 
Cape  Comorin,  passing  which  they  enter  into  the  Bay  of 
Bengal — thence  along  the  eastern  shore  of  Hindoostan 
and  the  "western  coast  of  the  Burman  Empire — thence 
among  the  numerous  and  populous  islands  lying  south- 
eastwardly  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal  to  the  Chinese  Sea. 
Coasting  along  the  shores  of  China,  the  fleet  now  sail 
northwardly,  and  pass  into  the  sea  of  Japan,  the  Yellow 
Sea,  and  finally  reach  the  sea  of  Kamschatka;  they 
continue  northwardly  until,  from  their  decks,  the  coast 
of  North  America  is  visible,  separated  from  Asia  at  Bhe- 
ling's  Straits  by  but  a  few  miles,  and,  perhaps,  then 
united — for  it  has  been  a  common  opinion  that  the  two 
continents  were  formerly  connected  at  this  point,  and 
that  the  sea  has  made  a  breach  now  forming  the  Straits 
which  divide  them  With  the  ships  once  on  the  western 
coast  of  North  America,  we  have  no  difficulty  in  giving 
them  an  easy  passage  to  California,  where  they  may  be 
supposed  to  have  disembarked  to  procure  their  cargo  of 
gold.    In  all  this  route  the  fleet  have  rarely  been  out  of 


112  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

sight  of  land — have  been  exposed  to  no  hazardous  navi- 
gation, if  we  except  in  the  vicinity  of  Bhering's  Straits, 
and  this  might  have  been  avoided  by  crossing  to  this 
continent  somewhat  south  of  this  point,  where  they  would 
hardly  be  for  twenty-four  hours  without  one  coast  or  the 
other  in  view.  Among  the  numerous  theories  advanced, 
we  think  this  the  best,  for  we  have  for  the  most  part  a 
coasting  voyage,  with  no  difficult  navigation,  along  popu- 
lous and  fertile  countries,  where  the  ships  could  be 
supplied,  with  a  period  of  three  years  to  accomplish  it, 
to  a  land  where  gold  is  known  to  exist  in  sufficient  abun- 
dance to  verify  the  statement  of  the  immense  supply 
obtained  for  the  use  of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  If 
we  have  not  made  out  a  good  case,  as  lawyers  say,  we 
have  at  least  presented  a  better  one  than  our  prede- 
cessors in  this  path  of  investigation,  or  rather  of  fanciful 
theorizing,  for,  seriously,  the  time  is  too  remote,  the  re- 
corded facts  too  few,  and  the  basis  of  inquiry  too  narrow, 
to  render  it  possible  to  arrive  at  any  very  satisfactory  re- 
sults. The  shadow  of  a  remote  antiquity  rests  upon  this 
ancient  voyage ;  three  thousand  years  separate  our  era 
from  that  of  Solomon ;  the  sands  of  the  sea  have  long 
since  buried  the  town  and  port  from  which  the  Hebrew 
and  Tyrian  mariners  set  their  sails  to  the  breeze ;  its  site 
is  sought  in  vain  by  the  traveler  along  the  shores  of  the 
Red  Sea,  from  which  commerce  and  the  arts  have  passed 
westward  by  a  law,  the  constant  operation  of  which  has 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  113 

rolled  the  tide  of  our  population  over  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. Judea  is  a  desert  now,  not  worth  the  gold  upon 
the  cornices  of  its  far-famed  temple ;  the  city  where  the 
Roman  Eagle  in  the  day  of  its  decay  and  judgment 
gathered  around  a  milUon  of  souls,  devoted  as  a  Holo- 
caust upon  the  altars  of  divine  retribution,  presents  no 
token  of  its  former  grandeur.  A  preternatural  shadow 
rests  upon  the  land  where  Prophets,  Martyrs,  and  Apos- 
tles sleep.  A  crime  at  which  the  heavens  grew  dark  is 
not  yet  expiated ;  but  oracles  were  uttered  there  which 
constitute  the  basis  of  our  faith  and  our  civilization.  It 
is  still  the  land  of  promise  and  prophecy,  whose  august 
memories  survive  its  predicted  doom.  The  aged  Jew 
goes  there  to  die ;  the  Christian  crosses  seas  and  deserts 
to  gaze  with  reverence  upon  the  places  where  God  con- 
versed with  men  and  manifested  the  powers  of  the  world 
to  come ;  even  the  followers  of  Mahomet  esteem  it  a  holy 
land-  Humbled  in  the  dust,  Judea  is  destined  to  survive 
her  spoilers  and  to  receive  once  more  her  scattered  tribes, 
who,  from  the  distant  places  of  their  banishment,  still 
look  with  undying  affection  toward  the  sacred  city — still 
wait  with  unabated  confidence  the  day,  when  the  moun- 
tain of  the  Lord's  house  shall  again  be  estabhshed — 
when  the  wilderness  shall  become  as  Eden  and  the  Law 
shall  go  forth  from  Jerusalem. 

Whether  the  auriferous  region  on  the  western  shores  of 
this  continent  is  the  country  visited  by  the  fleet  of  Solo- 
s' 


'■^V*. 


114  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

mon,  is  not  of  easy  decision,  one  thing  alone  is  clear — 
it  is  the  Ophir  of  our  day — the  Dorado  of  the  New 
World — escaping  for  more  than  two  centuries  the  obser- 
vation of  its  occupants,  so  far  as  any  available  discovery 
of  its  wealth  was  concerned — to  fall  into  the  possession 
at  last  of  those  colonists  who  had  ploughed  the  valleys 
and  disemboweled  the  mountains  of  the  North  for  other 
purposes  than  the  discovery  of  gold.  By  a  compen- 
sating Providence,  California  has  been  given  to  the  people 
who  were  called  to  labor  among  the  granite  hills  of  New 
England — to  the  men  who  were  appointed  to  recover 
the  eastern  coast  of  this  continent,  which  had  cast  off  the 
chains  of  a  remote  civiUzation,  whose  broken  monu- 
ments were  covered  by  forests,  the  rings  of  whose  vast 
trunks  indicated  the  growth  of  ages — to  the  laborers 
who  have  overcome  obstacles  which  seemed  insurmount- 
able— who  have  made  the  "wilderness  and  the  solitary 
place  glad  for  them" — who  have  yoked  every  stream 
and  cataract  to  their  mill-wheels — who  have  vexed  every 
river  with  the  paddles  of  their  steam  vessels — who  have 
united  the  great  northern  lakes  with  the  ocean,  and 
given  in  wedlock  to  Neptune  the  coy  Nymphs  of  the 
pure  waters  of  the  northern  forests.  The  sturdy  wood- 
men who  have  broken  upon  the  apparently  impassable 
soHtudes  of  a  vast  continent,  with  a  rifle  in  one  hand  and 
an  axe  in  the  other,  ever  pressing  forward  to  an  unin- 
habited wilderness — ever  leaving  behind  them  fruitful 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  115 

fields  and  smiling  han^ests — the  artizan  and  agriculturist 
eating  their  bread  from  a  hard- won  soil  in  the  sweat  of 
their  faces,  have  been  compensated  in  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence Tvdth  the  golden  Ophir,  for  which  Spain  sent  forth 
her  chivalry  and  poured  out  her  best  blood  on  the  soil  of 
Mexico,  in  her  wars  with  the  Aztecs. 

The  hard-handed  sons  of  labor  received  a  double  com- 
pensation, first  of  toil  rewarded,  of  freedom  secured,  of 
power  attained,  of  a  vast  and  increasing  population,  of 
fleets  and  armies,  of  cities  and  villages,  of  wealth  and 
commerce,  and  then  the  long  sought  Ophir,  though  not 
by  them.  El  Dorado,  the  golden  land,  whose  inexhaust- 
ible stores  should  enrich  its  possessors,  and  supply  the 
world  with  a  circulating  mediunL  The  ancient  Prophets 
represent  the  Most  High  as  compensating  the  people 
who  had  executed  his  purposes,  though  ignorant  of  their 
commission,  much  more  may  we  notice  the  rewards  which 
the  Supreme  Arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  nations  has 
poured  into  the  lap  of  the  descendants  of  these  men  who 
knew,  in  part  at  least*  their  mission,  when  they  landed 
"on  the  bleak  New  England  shore,"  who  felt  that  they 
were  chosen  to  invade  the  wilderness,  to  plant  a  nation 
whose  inheritance  of  truth  and  freedom  should  outweigh 
ail  the  gold  and  silver  in  mountain  or  mine,  who  foresaw 
as  the  reward  of  their  privations,  an  enlightened  and 
Christian  people,  spreading  themselves  over  a  continent, 
the  doors  of  which  they  were  content  to  open  at  the 


116  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

price  of  blood,  for  war,  pestilence,  and  famine,  stood  senti- 
nels at  the  gate  of  American  Colonization,  and  our 
fathers  encountered  greater  trials  than  the  wolf-nurtured 
founders  of  Rome. 

In  the  settlement  of  the  western  portions  of  the  New 
World,  Poetry  and  Romance  have  a  place  with  the  stern 
realities  of  toil,  peril,  and  privation.  We  often  wonder 
at  the  perseverance  of  that  army  of  borderers  who  ever 
remain  upon  the  frontiers  of  civilization,  who  ever  press 
forward  upon  the  wilderness,  as  population  and  the  arts 
advance,  leaving  the  results  of  countless  perils,  the  fruits 
of  indescribable  hardships,  to  their  successors.  We  over- 
look the  fact  that  every  man  has  in  him  the  elements 
which  in  their  highest  development  constitute  the  Poet 
and  the  Hero.  Who  knows  what  grand  conceptions  fill 
the  mind  of  the  rude  borderer,  as  he  gazes  upon  some 
virgin  landscape  of  the  forest  or  prairie,  now  first  pressed 
by  the  foot  of  a  white  man — what  high  poetic  thoughts, 
to  which  he  could  no  more  give  utterance  than  he  could 
create  a  world  ?  Who  can  tell  with  what  feelings 
of  exultation,  like  those  of  a  hero  and  conqueror,  he  en- 
ters upon  new  domains,  which  he  possesses  both  by  the 
right  of  discovery  and  conquest  ?  Who  can  say,  that  he 
encounters  fewer  perils  than  the  soldier  in  the  battle- 
field in  his  conflicts  with  wild  beasts  and  savage  men  ? 
Who  can  tell  the  poetic  imaginings  which  fire  the  soul 
of  the  hardy  adventurer  as  he  penetrates  the  primitive 


THE    LAND    OP   OPHIR.  117 

forests,  under  the  arches  of  the  grand  old  trees,  planted 
by  the  hand  of  God,  before  the  keels  of  the  Spanish  ad- 
venturers touched  the  shores  of  the  New  World  ?  With 
what  eager  anticipation  he  presses  forward  to  the  new 
scenes  which  ever  break  upon  his  view.  Here  a  lake  em- 
bosomed in  the  wilderness,  there  a  mountain  whose  jag- 
ged and  untrodden  precipices  still  mark  the  convulsive 
throes  by  which  it  was  upheaved  and  made  to  rise  among 
the  stars — anon  the  sound  of  a  cataract  rushing  down 
the  rocks,  poured  from  the  diadem  of  snow  which  crowns 
its  lofty  summit,  watering  the  vale  below,  upon  which 
rests  the  ancient  volcano,  like  an  image  of  terror  upon  a 
pedestal  of  beauty — like  the  skeleton  of  a  giant  erect 
amid  a  garden  of  flowers.  The  enthusiast  of  the  woods 
opens  the  pages  of  an  unwritten  poem  more  glorious  and 
sublime  than  the  Epics  of  Homer  or  Milton — exciting  the 
imagination  and  arousing  the  activities  of  the  soul  more 
than  the  highest  efforts  of  genius.  Who  that  has  not 
experienced  can  describe  the  fascination  of  that  life,  which 
revels  in  a  wild  independence,  which,  though  surrounded 
by  perils,  is  unfettered  by  fear — which  finds  in  danger 
that  powerful  excitement  which  knows  no  ennui — that 
constant  activity  which  feels  no  fatigue — which  hardens 
the  muscles  hke  steel — which  calls  out  all  the  resources 
of  the  borderer,  enabling  him  to  add  the  wood-craft  and 
wiles  of  the  Indian  to  the  superior  strength  and  intelli- 
gence of  the  white  man  ?     Monarch  for  the  time  of  all 


118  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

he  surveys,  he  dreams  in  his  domains  like  a  Poet,  while 
defending  them  like  a  Hero.  No  wonder  he  disclaims 
the  efteminacy  and  dependence  of  a  high  civihzation,  and 
presses  onward  to  the  wilderness  from  its  approach. 

These  men  have  given  us  the  continent  over  which 
our  population  are  spreading  themselves.  Unknown  and 
unhonored,  they  have  been  the  pioneers  of  our  advance 
and  have  broken  down  barriers  before  which  mere  in- 
dustry and  labor  stand  appalled,  which  could  have  been 
surmounted  only  by  that  heroism  which  rejoices  in 
danger  and  rises  with  the  difficulties  which  surround  its 
path.  Without  this  Forest  Chivalry,  the  English 
Colonists  would  never  have  extended  themselves  beyond 
the  strip  of  coast  which  they  first  occupied.  It  is  easy 
for  us,  surrounded  by  all  the  soft  appliances  of  a  high 
civilization,  to  boast  of  our  progress,  of  the  rapid  increase 
of  our  population  and  territory — but  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  show  our  connection  with  the  results  about  which 
this  perpetual  glorification  is  kept  up.  The  truth  is,  the 
hardihood  and  heroism  of  the  founders  of  our  empire, 
are  unappreciated  by  those  who  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their 
labors ;  they  are  even  ridiculed  by  a  would-be  aristocracy, 
who,  aping  the  manners  of  the  Old  World  and  running- 
after  the  foreign  authors  and  sprigs  of  nobility,  who  con- 
descend to  visit  and  abuse  us,  have  about  the  same  re- 
gard for  the  Titans  of  the  Wilderness,  that  Dives,  clad  in 
purple  and  fine  hnen,  had  for  Lazarus,  who  sat  at  his  gate. 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  119 

The  heroic  men  who  have  broken  in  upon  the  forest 
and  extended  our  donainion  to  the  Pacific,  have  never 
trumpeted  their  deeds ;  they  have  rarely  told  the  story 
of  their  trials  and  suflferings  in  the  ears  of  their  ungrate- 
ful countrymen.  Now  and  then  a  scholar,  like  the  gal- 
lant Fremont,  gives  us  an  insight  of  the  manner  in  which 
a  continent  is  conquered,  but  with  a  modesty  which  is  a 
marvel  to  those  who  sit  at  "  home  at  ease,"  and  boast  of 
battles  which  they  never  fought*  of  conquests  which  they 
never  made. 

Many  of  our  brethren  who  are  extending  our  borders 
and  breaking  over  the  barriers  of  nature,  are  utterly  in- 
capable of  author-craft  They  can  neither  vindicate 
their  manners  or  morals  from  the  ridicule  of  wits  or  the 
caricatures  of  novelists.  The  ancients  who  deified  Her- 
cules, would  have  made  them  demi-gods;  but,  like  the 
Philistines,  we  make  sport  with  the  Sampsons  of  the 
wilderness ;  and  it  is  well  they  are  not  tied  to  the  pillars 
of  our  civilization,  which  they  might  handle  as  rudely  as 
did  the  blind  Hebrew  the  Temple  of  Dagon.  When  the 
mission  of  these  men  is  fulfilled,  when,  as  a  body,  they 
sliall  have  disappeared  from  the  scene  of  action,  posterity 
will  do  them  justice — their  exploits  will  form  the  themes 
of  Poets  and  Historians,  in  the  Augustan  age  of  our  hte- 
rature.  There  is  a  premonition  of  this  result  in  the  Eu- 
logy of  Daniel  Boone,  the  prototype  of  his  class,  uttered 


120  THE    LAKD    OF    OPHIR. 

by  one  of  the  most  gifted  of  English  Poets.  He  speaks 
thus  of  the  Pioneer  of  Kentucky : 

*'  He  left  behind  a  name 
For  which  raen  vainly  decimate  the  throng, 
Not  only  famous  but  of  that  good  fame, 
Without  which  glory 's  but  a  tavern  song. 
******* 
He  was  not  all  alone  ;— around  him  grew 
A  sylvan  tribe  of  children  of  the  chase, 
Whose  young  unwaken'd  world  was  ever  new. 
******* 
And  tall,  and  strong,  and  swift  of  foot  were  they  •, 
Beyond  the  dwarfing  city's  pale  abortions. 
Because  their  thoughts  had  never  been  the  prey 
Of  care  or  gain  -, — the  green  woods  were  their  portions  ; 
No  sinking  spirits  told  them  they  grew  gray- 
No  fashion  made  them  apes  of  her  distortions. 
Simple,  they  were  not  savage  -,  and  their  riflei 
Though  very  true,  were  not  yet  used  for  trifles." 

The  speaker  has  in  his  possession,  in  an  ancient  Magazine, 
a  letter  written  by  Daniel  Boone,  in  which  he  gives  a 
simple  and  modest  account  of  the  settlement  of  the 
dark  and  bloody  ground,  of  the  perils  he  had  himself  en- 
countered, of  the  captivities  he  had  endured,  closing 
with  this  serious  and  striking  thought,  that  he  had  been 
"an  instrument  ordained  to  settle  the  wilderness" — a 
thought  common  to  conquerors,  from  Attila  to  Napoleon — 
the  one  styling  himself  the  Scourge  of  God,  the  other  the 
Child  of  Destiny.  For  ever,  in  heroic  minds,  there  seem 
to  be  a  consciousness  that  they  are  but  working  out  the 
designs  of  Providence  and  accomplishing  purposes  hid- 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  121 

den  from  themselves  in  the  inscrutable  counsels  of  infi- 
nite wisdom.  In  all  the  great  revolutions  which  con- 
stitute the  epochs  of  history,  the  immediate  and  obvious 
residts  are  the  mere  accessories  of  those  great  ends 
which,  escaping  the  attention  of  the  mass  of  mankind, 
are  dimly  perceived  by  genius,  and  always  clearly  appre- 
hended by  faitL  Not  only  the  ends  but  the  agents  of 
the  great  movements  of  society  are  often  concealed  from 
the  generation  of  immediate  spectators.  Time,  which  at 
length  unfolds  the  Divine  purpose,  reveals  also  the  true 
hero,  while  the  simulacrums  and  shams  which  have 
usurped  the  thrones  of  Principalities  and  Powers  sink 
into  unregretted  and  hopeless  oblivion. 

The  idea  that  the  Pioneers  who  press  upon  the  wil- 
derness or  who  enter  upon  the  new  domains  acquired 
by  the  United  States,  are,  as  a  body,  a  reckless  and  law- 
less company,  is  without  foundation.  It  is  true,  they 
have  neither  schools,  court-houses,  or  penitentiaries — 
these  things  are  out  of  the  question  in  their  condition — 
yet  crime  is  rare  among  them,  and  still  more  rarely 
escapes  punishment  They  know  nothing  of  the  new  phi- 
losophy which  makes  a  felon  more  unfortunate  than 
guilty;  they  allow  no  pleas  of  insanity  to  impede  the 
course  of  justice — no  allegation  of  a  mal-organized  brain 
to  extenuate  guilt;  their  sympathies  are  not  expended 
upon  the  murderer  rather  than  his  victim ;  they  are  not 
imbued  with  that  popular  sentimentalism  which  seeks  to 


122  TfTE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

excuse  and  palliate  the  guilt  and  modify  the  penalty  of 
red-handed  murder,  leaving  the  blood  of  the  slain,  un- 
noticed by  men,  to  appeal  for  judgment  to  Him  "who  will 
by  no  means  clear  the  guilty."  Woe  to  the  felon  upon 
whose  track  is  the  American  borderer! — an  avenger  of 
blood  is  behind  him,  who  knows  no  fatigue,  who  is  as 
fixed  and  unwavering  in  his  purpc^e  as  a  messenger  of 
fate.  Woe  to  the  assassin  before  a  self-impanneled  jury 
of  American  foresters  !  No  he  will  help  him — no  elo- 
quence prevail;  no  false  plea  can  confuse  the  clear  con- 
ceptions or  arrest  the  just  judgment  of  a  frontier  court. 

No  justification  is  intended  in  these  remarks  of  the 
self-constituted  courts  who  take  the  administration  of 
law  out  of  the  hands  of  the  authorized  tribunals.  But 
where  such  tribunals  do  not  and  cannot  exist,  it  is  a  high 
proof  of  the  law-abiding  character  of  our  population, 
that  when  on  the  borders  of  civihzation,  or  thrown  sud- 
denly in  unorganized  masses  together,  as  in  California, 
they  are  a  "law  unto  themselves,"  and  execute  judg- 
ment on  offenders  with  a  celerity  and  certainty  unknown 
in  the  more  advanced  states  of  society. 

It  ought  to  be  understood,  however,  that  the  alarming 
tendency  to  a  relaxation  of  our  criminal  jurisprudence, 
the  pleas  that  a  false  and  dangerous  philosophy,  which, 
pretending  to  be  both  humane  and  decent,  is  simply  jacq? 
binical  and  infidel — is  constantly  affording  to  guilty  the 
continual  efforts  to  take  from  the  magistrate  the  sword  di- 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  123 

yinely  bestowed,  and  to  violate  that  ordinance  of  the 
Supreme  Lawgiver — "  whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed" — has  a  tendency  to  destroy 
all  respect  for  the  administration  of  law,  and  to  lead  men 
from  a  sense  of  natural  justice,  to  lay  hands  on  the  as- 
sassin, who,  red  with  the  blood  of  his  victim,  laughs  at  a 
judicial  trial  Our  law-makers  may  look  for  such  results, 
if  they  continue  to  weaken  the  secuiities  of  Hfe  and  pro- 
perty, for  society  will,  in  the  end,  be  driven  to  protect 
itself  and  to  execute  judgment  in  defiance  of  law. 

In  the  occupation  of  the  newly  found  Ophir,  where 
over  the  remains  of  the  old  Spanish  civilization,  an  army 
of  American  adventurers  are  spreading  themselves,  the 
evils  which  were  anticipated  have  not  greatly  prevailed. 
Out  of  the  cities  crime  is  rare,  and  is  no  where  more  cer- 
tainly punished.  The  Sabbath  is  less  desecrated  by  labor 
than  in  the  Atlantic  States.  A  constitution,  remarkably 
conservative  in  its  character,  has  been  adopted,  and 
instead  of  being  a  paradise  for  rogues,  California  is  likely 
to  prove  their  purgatory.  Even  those  who  were  restive 
here  under  the  restraints  of  law,  order,  and  religion, 
appear  there  to  feel  their  necessity,  and  are  led  by  the 
hazards  and  privations  of  their  condition,  to  appreciate 
institutions  which  were  unprized  in  the  bosom  of 
civilization.  The  wild  spirits  that  disdained  restraint  at 
home,  have  seen  and  felt  the  responsibilities  of  their  new 
condition ;  as  the  law-makers  of  a  great  Empire,  they  hav6 


124  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

shown  their  Anglo  Saxon  blood,  and  their  Puritan  train- 
ing by  a  liberal  support  of  the  institutions  of  religion  and 
learning,  which  they  have  commenced  endowing  like 
their  progenitors,  on  the  eastern  shores  of  this  continent, 
before  erecting  houses  for  themselves,  and  while  literally 
dwelling  in  tents. 

But,  leaving  the  vindication  of  the  men,  who,  under  a 
kind  of  divine  impulse  or  afflatus,  have  broken  in  upon 
the  forests  and  deserts  of  this  vast  continent,  to  other 
times  and  abler  hands,  let  us  notice  the  manner  in  which 
the  modern  Ophir  has  been  possessed  by  us,  and  the 
result,  which  are  hkely  to  flow  from  the  founding  of  a  new 
State  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

In  the  history  of  colonization  and  discover)",  what 
fact  more  astonishing  can  be  adduced  than  that,  the 
rich  deposits  of  California  remained  undiscovered  by  the 
Spaniard,  who,  for  more  than  two  centuries,  has  had  it  in 
possession,  and  who  came  to  this  continent  in  the  pursuit 
of  gold  ?  That  in  the  mountains  on  the  western  coast  of 
North  and  South  America,  whose  deposits  of  treasure 
seem  providentially  intended  to  stimulate  emigration,  and 
accomplish  the  settlement  of  this  portion  of  the  New 
World,  the  richest  spot,  the  true  Ophir  of  the  whole,  should 
remain  undiscovered  by  its  gold-hunting  occupants,  until 
they  had  relinquished  the  sovereignty  and  ceded  thic 
territory  to  the  Sons  of  the  Pilgrims,  is  one  of  those 
startling  providences,  which  compel  the  most  careless  and 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  126 

skeptical   to   acknowledge   the   hand   of   the    Supreme 
Ruler. 

Until  the  time  had  come  when  this  treasure  could  be 
made  avjdlable — until  the  men  were  found  and  trained 
to  whom  Grod  had  allotted  this  inheritance — no  eye  was 
suffered  to  behold,  no  hand  permitted  to  grasp  the 
inexhaustible  wealth,  mixed  in  the  soil,  over  which  the 
Spaniard  had  passed  for  six  generations.  In  his 
possession,  California  and  its  wealth  would  have  been 
worse  than  wasted ;  the  fate  of  Mexico  and  Peru  would 
have  overtaken  the  new  found  Ophir ;  a  half  Pagan  and 
altogether  barbarous  people  would  have  increased  the 
darkness  brooding  over  the  western  coast  of  North 
America,  and  bordering  Asia  with  her  teeming  millions — 
would  have  looked  with  contempt  upon  a  Christianity  as 
superstitious  as  Boodhism  upon  a  civilization  inferior  to 
that  of  her  own  Celestial  Empire.  As  it  is,  if,  by  some 
miraculous  exodus,  a  Christian  and  civiUzed  nation  had 
been  suddenly  transported  into  the  heart  of  Asia,  the 
result  could  not  be  more  certain  or  immediate  than  that 
which  must  be  effected  by  the  occupation  of  California, 
upon  those  vast  and  populous  regions,  which  have 
hitherto  been  separated  from  European  civilization  and 
Christianity,  by  a  dangerous  navigation,  over  a  distance 
of  twenty-five  thousand  miles.  China  with,  at  least, 
one  third  of  the  population  of  the  globe  is  now  a 
Mghboring  nation;  the  junks  of  the  Celestial  Empire 


126  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

have  already  appeared  in  the  port  of  San  Francisco— 
Chinese  cooks  and  carpenters  are  seen  at  every  corner  of 
the  streets,  and  are  thought  to  number  about  three 
hundred  of  the  population.  Siam  and  Burmah,  Cochin 
China  and  Japan,  with  Australasia  and  the  islands  upon 
the  Equator,  are  at  the  doors  of  the  United  States. 
Even  Hindoostan,  with  its  population  of  two  hundred 
millions,  is  now  accessible  by  a  comparatively  short  and 
safe  voyage  from  California.  The  long  sought  and 
earnestly  desired  passage  to  the  Indies,  is  at  length  found, 
not  by  the  Arctic  Ocean,  but  by  the  settlement  of 
California,  as  a  free  American  State.  New  York  and 
Canton  are  soon  to  be  in  a  juxta-position,  like  that  of 
New  York  and  Liverpool,  for  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
an  accessible  route  across  the  Continent  will  soon 
connect  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts;  under  one 
government,  in  possession  of  a  people  who  have  shown 
themselves  equal  to  the  greatest  undertakings,  it  cannot 
be  long  before  the  vast  territory  between  New  York 
and  San  Francisco  will  be  penetrated  by  railroads  and 
intersected  by  canals,  connecting,  perhaps,  the  head 
waters  of  the  Missouri  with  the  sources  of  the 
Columbia.  The  child  is  born  that  shall  live  to  see  this 
consummation,  which  is  to  change  the  routes  of  commerce 
and  give  to  this  Union  the  advantages  of  that  trade  with 
the  Indies  which  made  the  ancient  Tyre  the  mistress  of 
the  sea,   which   afterwards   enriched    Alexandria,   and 


THE    LAND    Of    OPHIR.  127 

which,  in  modem  times,  has  successively  given  wealth  to 
Venice  and  Amsterdam,  and  is  now  building  up  the 
overgrown  Metropolis  of  England. 

The  gold  which  has  drawn  a  population  to  the  Pacific 
in  one  year  that  in  half  a  century  would  not  have  been 
found  there  under  the  ordinary  stimulants  of  coloniza- 
tion, is  not,  after  all,  the  substantial  reward  which  is  to  be 
reaped  by  the  sudden  birth  of  a  new  State  beyond  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  Oregon  which  borders  California, 
will  be  filled  with  agriculturists  to  supply  their  south - 
em  neighbors ;  portions  of  the  modern  Ophir  are  fertile, 
and  it  is  thought  that  the  whole  country.may  be  rendered 
productive  by  irrigation.  The  curse  of  the  Spanish  colo- 
nies is  not  likely  to  fall  upon  a  people  who  have  been 
disciplined  by  labor,  who  know  that  wealth  can  be  se- 
cured by  other  means  than  digging  gold — who  can  cal- 
culate with  unerring  sagacity  the  precise  moment  when 
agriculture  and  commerce  will  become  more  profitable 
than  mining.  A  greater  end  will  be  secured  than 
the  transmutation  of  all  the  ledges  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains into  gold  and  silver — a  free  Christian  State  will 
spread  themselves  along  the  Pacific  coast,  changing  not 
only  the  course  of  commerce,  but  placing  the  United 
States  in  a  central  position  between  Europe  and  Asia,  a 
position  more  commanding  than  any  ever  occupied  by 
the  Great  Empires  of  ancient  or  modem  times.  When 
(he  western  coast  of  this  continent  is  filled  like  the  east- 


128  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

ern,  with  an  active  and  industrious  population,  when  the 
heart  of  this  vast  country  is  divided  into  free  States  of 
our  Union,  connected  by  railroads  and  canals,  we  shall 
have  Europe  on  one  side  and  Asia  on  the  other,  with 
the  commerce  of  both,  and  the  channels  of  communica- 
tion between  them — and  the  gold  of  our  Ophir  will  be 
as  the  small  dust  of  the  balance  in  comparison  with  the 
advantages  arising  from  the  settlement  of  Cahfornia, 
The  great  political  problem,  the  long  agitated  question, 
how  enlargement  can  be  made  coincident  with  security — 
has  been  solved  for  the  first  time  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, and  by  the  union  of  the  American  States.  The 
old  empires  fell  to  pieces  by  their  own  weight  and  were 
destroyed  by  extension :  like  "giant  spectres"  haunting  the 
present  time,  they  point  us  to  the  wrecks  of  their  greatness, 
which  lie  scattered  along  the  line  of  by-gone  centuries. 
In  the  admirable  distribution  of  powers  between  the  state 
and  general  governments,  which,  in  regard  to  all  that  is 
national,  unites  as  one,  our  whole  population,  and  in  respect 
to  that  which  is  local  and  internal,  divides  them  into  dis- 
tinct and  numerous  sovereignties,  safety  and  strength  are 
secured  rather  than  diminished  by  increase  and  enlarge- 
ment The  central  States  will  never  allow  a  separation 
which  cuts  them  off  from  the  sea  and  degrades  them  to 
the  position  of  provinces  of  the  governments  on  the  coast ; 
they  will  say  to  the  waves  of  discontent  and  disunion, 
"thus  far  shalt  thou  come  and  no  farther."     It  is  the 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  129 

number  and  strength  of  these  States  that  nowliold  to- 
gether this  Confederacy,  amid  the  heart-burnings  and 
timiults  engendered  by  the  Slave  Question,  which  would 
long  since  have  divided  the  North  and  South  but  for  the 
constant  addition  of  new  States,  which  have  been  bonds 
of  strength  to  the  confederacy  and  pledges  of  its  perpe- 
tuity. A  doom  like  that  of  Uzzah  will  overtake  those 
who,  imder  the  pretence  of  steadying  and  securing,  pro- 
fenely  touch  the  ark  of  the  union  of  the  American 
States.  The  disunionist  is  not  only  a  traitor  to  his  coun- 
try, but  to  humanity  itself — aiming  a  blow  at  the  land  of 
his  birth  and  the  government  to  which  he  owes  alle- 
giance. He  is  guilty  of  high  treason  against  his  race,  who 
in  the  several  places  of  their  bondage  and  from  every  wall 
(rf  their  captivity,  have  still  a  hope  to  cheer  them  in  the 
permanence  of  our  institutions,  in  the  perpetuity  of  our 
Union.  Shall  that  flag  fail  from  the  sea,  whose  stars  and 
stripes  in  every  bay  and  river  of  the  globe,  are  symbols 
of  hope  to  the  Nations  ?  Shall  that  dominion  be  broken, 
which  is  the  sole  asylum  of  the  unnumbered  exiles 
who  flee  from  political  oppression  ?  Shall  that  Republic 
be  dismembered  which  throws  the  ^gis  of  its  protec- 
tion over  the  vanquished  patriots  of  Europe,  who  escape 
firom  the  axe  and  the  gibbet — 

— — "  Powrer  at  tpho$*  bounds 
Stops  and  calls  back  her  baffled  houads"  f 


130  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

May  Heaven  avert  such  a  consummation,  and  write  upon 
the  Union  of  these  States,  "esto  perpetua." 

But  passing  from  political  considerations  and  the  calcu- 
lations of  commerce,  wealth,  and  population,  let  us  turn  to 
the  higher  interests  of  our  common  humanity;  let  us 
consider  the  moral  influences  destined  to  be  exerted  by 
the  settlement  of  this  continent ;  let  us  notice  the  gTeat 
ends  which  the  Divine  Providence  is  about  to  accomplish 
in  this  rapid  movement  of  our  population  westward  to 
California — the  golden  land. 

When  the  northern  portions  of  the  new  world  were 
first  settled,  two  widely  differing  races  of  men  were 
brought  together  by  the  will  of  God,  to  occupy  the  terri- 
tory provided  for  them — the  English  Puritan  and  the 
African  Negro.  The  former,  after  a  desperate  conflict 
with  political  and  ecclesiastical  despotism,  and  a  partial 
triumph  over  both,  was  compelled  at  last,  by  the  stern 
hand  of  persecution,  to  expatriate  himself  to  the  wilder- 
ness of  North  America ; — the  latter  was  stolen  from  his 
barbarous  home,  himself  the  most  stupid  of  barbarians, 
and  forced  by  the  British  government,  upon  their  colonies 
on  this  continent.  The  one  had  been  trained  and  disci- 
plined in  a  severe  school  for  generations,  to  fit  him 
to  found  an  empire  on  the  basis  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty — the  other  had  been  a  servant  of  servants,  in  all 
his  generations.  The  two  extremes  of  the  human  family 
were  thus  brought  together — the  most  enlightened  and 


THE    LAND   OF   OPHIR.  131 

the  most  ignorant ;  those  who  had  been  in  training  for 
two  centuries  for  the  work  of  human  regeneration,  and 
those  who  presented  the  lowest  point  of  depression  of 
which  our  nature  is  capable,  and  were  thought  by  some 
to  occupy  a  middle  place  between  animals  and  men. 
The  purpose  for  which  these  two  races — the  antipodes 
of  human  nature — were  driven  to  this  continent — the 
one  by  persecution,  the  other  by  piracy — begins  already 
to  appear.  The  one  is  destined  to  bear  to  the  most  be- 
nighted portion  of  the  earth — to  barbarous  Africa — the 
Christian  rehgion  with  the  English  language,  literature, 
and  laws — the  other  to  introduce  through  the  gates  of  the 
Pacific  the  same  gifts  to  semi-civilized  and  pagan  Asia. 
The  African,  christianized  and  civilized,  even  in  his  ser- 
vile condition,  is  now  colonizing  back  to  Africa,  and  proving 
his  natural  equality  with  his  more  fortunate  brethren,  by 
founding  Free  States,  in  imitation  of  our  own  on  the  west- 
em  coast  of  that  great  continent,  in  which  civil  and  reli- 
gious hberty  are  secured,  and  order  and  law  prevail  as  fully 
aer  in  the  land  where,  from  a  bondage  of  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years,  he  has  commenced  his  exodus.  After  the 
lapse  of  ages  of  degradation,  a  Free  African  State  at  length 
appears — the  herald  of  a  brighter  day  for  that  benighted 
and  oppressed  continent  Along  a  coast,  haunted  but  yes- 
terday by  the  slave-trader  and  his  floating  hells,  the  flag 
of  Liberia  waves  in  the  breeze ;  the  thunder  of  her  cannon 
startles  the  man-stealer,  who,  driven  from  his  haimts,  is 


132  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

lighted  in  his  flight  by  the  blaze  of  his  burning  prisons. 
The  naked  NegTO  from  the  interior  gazes  with  wonder 
upon  civilized  and  Christian  men  of  his  own  color,  and 
asks,  as  the  greatest  of  favors,  the  pri\Tilege  of  surren- 
dering his  territory,  and  being  received  under  the  juris- 
diction of  those  who  appear  to  him  as  gods — the  story 
of  whose  prowess,  the  history  of  whose  work  of  libera- 
tion, he  carries  back  ^with  him  to  distant  tribes,  who 
receive  the  message  with  a  joy  like  that  of  the  Shepherds 
of  Galilee,  when  voices  from  heaven  proclaimed  the  ad- 
vent of  Him  whose  mission  was  "peace  on  earth  and 
good  will  to  men." 

But  while  the  descendants  of  Ham  return  to  the  East 
from  the  place  appointed  for  them,  and  from  among  the 
people  who  were  to  qualify  them  for  the  mission  of  re- 
generation to  Africa,  their  Anglo-Saxon  master  and 
teacher  is  urged  westward  by  providential  incentives, 
which  have  no  parallel  in  history,  and  which  have 
brought  him  at  last  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  terminus 
of  western  migTation.  Over  the  Rocky  Mountains  the 
tide  of  population  has  been  driven  as  by  the  hand  of 
God.  What  if  the  remains  of  the  dead  strew  the 
way — what  if  this  solemn  path  of  Divine  appointment 
be  baptized  in  blood  and  tears — what  though  the  cry  of 
the  mourner  is  mingling  with  the  voice  of  triumph  and 
conquest — what  though  with  Herculean  labor,  with  suf- 
ferings greater  than  those  endured  by  his  progenitors  on 


THE    LAKD   OF   OPHIR.  133 

the  eastern  coast — the  emigrant  forces  his  way  over 
desert  and  mountain,  to  his  heritage  in  the  West !  Is  he 
not  fulfilling  his  destiny?  Are  not  the  ends  secured 
greater  than  all  the  sacrifices  made  ?  Shall  not  the  soli- 
tary place  be  glad  for  them  and  the  desert  become  as 
the  garden  of  the  Lord  ? 

When  was  any  great  enterprise  accomplished  without 
pain  and  peril  ?  When  were  nations  colonized  without 
eating  the  bread  of  affiction  and  drinking  from  the  cup 
of  tears  ?  What  birth  of  Empires  without  throes  that 
have  shaken  the  earth  as  when  a  mountain  has  been 
upheaved  by  the  fires  of  a  volcano  ?  What  great  refor- 
mation has  made  its  way  along  a  path  of  flowers  and  by 
rivers  of  quietude?  What  important  end  has,  in  the 
Divine  Providence,  been  accomplished  without  heroic 
sacrifices,  without  sufiferings  so  intense  that  their  recital 
has  made  the  ears  of  men  to  tingle  ?  Is  it  not  a  part  of 
the  settled  arrangement  of  the  Supreme  Governor  that 
the  toil  and  travail  of  all  the  efforts  of  individuals  or  the 
movements  of  society,  shall  be  conunensurate  with  the 
value  of  the  end  to  be  obtained  by  them  ?  Was  it  not 
so  in  the  work  of  human  redemption  ?  Was  it  not  so  in 
the  progress  of  Christianity  in  the  first  three  centuries  ? 
Was  it  not  so  in  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury? The  work  of  human  regeneration  is  a  cross- 
bearing  work,  and  its  path  a  blood-stained  track.  The 
Christian  Missiooary  falls  at  the  threshold  of  the  enter- 


134  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

prise  for  which  he  has  forsaken  the  home  of  his  youth 
and  the  graves  of  his  fathers.  The  movements  of  nations 
in  their  appointed  agencies  in  the  work  of  human  re- 
demption are  like  the  progress  of  Israel  to  Canaan, 
through  a  Red  Sea  and  over  the  burning  sands  of  a 
weary  desert 

The  Christianized  African  returns  to  Africa  where 
Ham  has  his  perpetual  inheritance;  he  has  no  farther 
mission  westward,  and  no  part  in  the  settlement  of  tke 
Pacific  coast  All  the  legislation  in  the  world  cannot 
send  him  there,  or  keep  him  here,  or  divert  him  from  his 
destined  path. 

There  is  a  view  of  this  subject  which  elevates  it  above 
the  questions  which  are  now  agitating  this  Republic,  and 
exciting  the  North  and  South  to  an  antagonism  which 
threatens  the  dissolution  of  the  Union.  It  is  not  the 
boon  of  emancipation  which  the  Negro  needs  in  his  pre- 
sent circumstances ;  this  is  to  give  him  a  stone  when  he 
asks  for  bread.  If  it  could  be  shown  that  the  imme- 
diate abolition  of  Slavery  would  necessarily  elevate  the 
descendant  of  Ham,  the  questions  now  agitated  would  be 
of  paramount  importance.  But  is  there  any  such  demon- 
stration in  the  condition  of  the  Negro  at  the  North,  or  in 
the  present  social  state  and  prospects  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Hayti?  The  grand  inquiry  is  this, — how  shall  the 
colored  race  be  elevated?  The  limiting  of  the  bounda- 
ries of  slavery,  and  even  emancipation  itself,  however  de- 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  135 

arable  in  regard  to  the  white  race,  are  nothing  to  the 
black  man,  unless  he  obtains  a  social  equality.  It  mat- 
ters little  to  him  whether  he  is  a  hewer  of  wood  and  a 
drawer  of  water,  under  the  forn*  of  slavery  or  freedom, 
the  iron  which  enters  his  soul  is  in  neither  case  removed. 
While  he  is  separated  by  color  and  caste  from  the  white 
man  he  must  occupy  the  position  of  a  menial  While  im- 
der  the  shadow  of  the  superior  race  he  must  continue  in  a 
servile  condition,  unless  the  races  amalgamate— a  consum- 
mation which  is  not  to  be  expected — which  is  against 
nature,  and  would  tend  more  to  degrade  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  than  to  elevate  the  African.  The  only  method 
for  the  permanent  elevation  of  the  Negro  is  colonization — 
a  method  which  is  indicated  by  all  the  providences  of 
Qod  toward  this  oppressed  race,  and  which  falls  in  with 
that  Divine  purpose  of  which  we  have  spoken,  which  is 
to  restore  them  to  Africa  as  the  regenerators  of  a  conti- 
nent Was  the  present  position  of  things  in  Liberia  un- 
derstood by  the  colored  man  of  the  north,  he  would  fly 
there  on  the  wings  of  the  ^vind.  Slavery  itself  will 
eventually  fall  before  the  moral  power  of  this  demon- 
stration of  the  Negro's  capability  for  freedom  and  free 
institutions.  The  Colonies  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  when 
in  the  full  tide  of  success,  and  when  the  clouds  of  pre- 
judice shall  be  removed  which  blind  so  many  eyes,  will 
accomplish  more  toward  the  emancipation  of  the  Negro 
than  all  the  vituperation  of  ultra  men — more  than  all 


136  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

legislation,  and  more  than  all  other  arguments  will  it 
persuade  the  South  that  the  set  time  of  African  redemp- 
tion has  come  and  of  the  opening  of  doors  to  let  the  cap- 
tive go  free.  The  descendant  of  Ham,  who  yet  retains 
the  color  which  the  burning  sun  of  Africa  imprinted  on 
his  ancestors,  is  destined  to  go  back  to  his  people  with  the 
light  of  Christianity  and  civilization.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  free  American  emigrant  goes  to  the  golden  land 
because  he  has  a  work  there,  the  beginning  of  which  is 
seen,  but  of  which  few  have  perceived  the  end;  in- 
cited by  the  discovery  of  gold,  the  love  of  enterprise,  the 
opening  of  a  passage  to  the  Indies,  he  regards  not  yet, 
perhaps,  the  moral  results  of  his  mission ;  he  knows  not 
now  the  true  reason  of  his  journey  or  why  it  is,  that  in 
such  hot  haste  he  has  been  urged  across  the  continent 
The  regeneration  of  Asia  is,  we  think,  the  great  moral 
end  to  be  accomplished ;  for  this^  Ophir  has  been  hidden 
until  the  time  had  come  and  the  men  were  ready ;  for 
this,  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  been  driven  westward  by  irre- 
sistible influences  until  the  West  looks  into  the  East — 
until  the  Star  of  Christianity  and  civilization,  in  its  west- 
ward course,  shines  into  the  old  places  of  wealth,  popu- 
lation, and  commerce.  The  once  barbarous  descendants 
of  Japheth,  receiving  from  the  East  the  gospel  and  civi- 
lization, bear  them  half  around  the  globe  and  back  to  the 
cradle  of  the  race,  to  the  ancient  abodes  of  power,  com- 
merce, and  art     In  this  extraordinary  impulse  toward 


THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR.  137 

the  land  of  gold,  the  modern  Ophu-,  the  ends  of  that 
Eternal  Providence  which  is  over  all,  are  receiving  their 
accomplishment  The  word  of  Grod  goes  with  the  wave 
of  emigration — the  Christian  Missionary  proclaims  the 
everlasting  Gospel  on  the  coast  of  the  Pacific — astonished 
Asia  gazes  upon  the  new  State  brought  to  the  doors  of 
her  mightiest  nations — China,  Japan,  Burmah,  and  Siam, 
awake  from  the  slumber  of  centuries  to  hail  the  light 
which  beams  upon  them  from  this  new  Empire  of  the 
West  Upon  the  stagnant  waters  of  the  heritage  of 
Shem,  there  rolls  through  the  gates  of  California  that 
living,  restless,  purifying,  and  revolutionizing  flood,  which 
has  borne  the  children  of  Japheth  over  untrodden  con- 
tinents— above  mountains  deemed  inaccessible — over 
difficulties  reckoned  insuperable — through  obstacles  part- 
ing before  them  Hke  the  Red  Sea  before  the  Hebrews — 
to  fulfill  that  august  prediction  uttered  four  thousand 
years  ago  by  the  antediluvian  patriarch, — "God  shall 
enlarge  Japheth,  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of 
Shem." 

The  handful  of  com  which  was  cast  upon  this  conti- 
nent has  covered  the  tops  of  the  mountains  and  begins 
"to  shake  like  Lebanon."  The  child  thrown  out  of  Europe 
in  infancy  and  weakness,  into  the  wilderness  of  North 
America,  has  become  a  Giant — whose  feet  cover  the 
continent — whose  arms  extend  across  the  Atlantic  on 
the  one  side  to  Europe,  and  over  the  Pacific  to  Asia  on 
6* 


^^  OF  THr"^, 

ujri7BRsiTrl 


186  THE    LAND    OF    OPHIR. 

the  other.  The  Tree  planted  in  the  bleak  North  by  Faith 
and  Freedom,  watered  by  the  tears  of  the  pilgrims  and 
anointed  with  their  blood,  now  overshadows  nations  and 
tongues  hke  that  seen  in  vision  by  the  Chaldean  king, 
which  symbolized  the  first  and  greatest  of  monarchies — 
the  people  who  were  driven  out  of  the  old  world  as 
the  Hebrews  from  the  house  of  bondage,  have,  like 
their  prototypes,  become  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for  mul- 
titude, as  the  sands  of  the  sea-shore  innumerable — they 
have  founded  a  mightier  Empire  than  that  of  Solomon, 
and  found  a  richer  Ophir  than  that  from  which  the 
Hebrew-Tyrian  fleet  brought  treasure  for  the  temple  of 
the  Living  God. 


LECTURE  V. 

THE 

IMMATERIALITY  AND   NATURAL 
IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL.* 


The  union  of  mind  and  matter,  of  soul  and  body,  the 
nature  and  terms  of  their  connection,  their  respective 
qualities  and  relations,  and  their  comparitive  duration, 
are  topics  of  the  deepest  interest  No  apology  can  be 
necessary  for  introducing,  at  a  time  and  in  a  place  Uke 
this,  before  Societies  whose  object  is  mental  and  moral 
culture,  and  in  the  presence  of  those  whose  business  it 
is  to  communicate  and  receiye  knowledge,  a  subject 
which,  standing  intimately  and  equally  connected  with 
physical  and  metaphysical  science,  must  be  deeply  inte- 
resting to  the  student;  while,  from  its  importance  in 
morals  and  rehgion,  its  influence  upon  our  hope  of 
immortality  and  our  faith  in  the  unseen  world,  it  would 

*  DcliTered  before  the  Literary  Societiefl  of  Western  Reserve  College, 
!■  lOi. 


140  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

naturally  engage  and  secure  the  attention  of  the  most 
promiscuous  congregation. 

Whether  mind  is  the  mere  result  of  a  material  or- 
ganization, and  of  course  itself  material  and  naturally- 
perishable,  or  whether  it  is  superadded  immaterial  and 
immortal — are  questions  which  were  agitated  in  the  an- 
cient schools  of  literature.  Both  Plato  and  Cicero  dis- 
coursed eloquently  upon  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  the 
poetry  and  philosophy  of  the  ancients  alike  furnish  eyi- 
dence  of  the  interest  with  which  the  subject  was  by  them 
regarded.  Notwithstanding  the  popular  belief  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  and  the  reasoning  of  the  most 
profound  of  the  Grecian  philosophers,  and  the  most  elo- 
quent of  the  Roman  orators,  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  the 
ancient  theories  of  being  were  for  the  most  part  based 
upon  a  gross  materiahsm.  One  of  the  earliest  and  most 
prevalent  systems  of  philosophy  regarded  matter  as 
eternal,  upon  the  principle  that  nothing  can  proceed  from 
nothing.  Some  philosophers  of  this  school  considered 
matter  intelligent  in  its  parts,  but  unintelligent  as  a 
whole ;  others  held  that  it  is  intelligent  as  a  whole,  but 
unintelligent  in  its  parts. 

Another  ancient  hypothesis  which  has  maintained  its 
ground  to  modem  times,  and  may  be  found  in  the  specu- 
lations of  Spinoza  and  the  poetry  of  Pope,  taught,  that 
both  matter  and  mind  are  an  emanation  or  enlargement 
of  the  Creator.     This  theory  substantially  deifies  matter, 


IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL.  141 

and  is  exhibited  by  the  celebrated  author  of  the  Essay 
on  Man,  in  these  hnes — 

■**'AII  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole. 
Whose  body  nature  is,  and  God  the  soul." 

Pythagoras  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  founder  of  this 
scheme  of  philosophy,  which  prevailed  extensively  among 
the  ancients,  and  is  the  basis  of  the  two  great  systems  of 
religion  found  in  the  East,  Brahmism  and  Boodhism. 

A  third  system,  made  famous  in  modern  times  by 
Berkley,  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  and  which  illustrates  the 
tendency  of  the  human  mind  to  extremes,  denied  the 
existence  of  matter,  on  the  ground,  that  ideas  alone  con- 
stitute being,  and  that  we  beheld  in  the  forms  around  us 
not  real  substances,  but  ideal,  as  men  survey  things  that 
are  not,  in  dreams.  Pyrrho,  among  the  ancients,  denied 
the  existence  of  matter,  in  the  most  literal  manner ;  and 
even  Plato  thought  it  possible  that  life  might  partake  of 
the  nature  of  dreams,  in  which  nothing  is  real  but  our 
sensations. 

Among  the  ancient  philosophers,  the  question  of  the 
immateriality  and  immortality  of  the  soul  was  never  con- 
sidered as  settled ;  it  was  a  doubtful  and  contested  point, 
though  always  in  some  form  received  by  the  mass  of  the 
people,  whose  feith  was  probably  the  result  of  tradition. 
Under  the  light  of  a  full  revelation  of  the  spirituality  and 
immateriality  of  the  soul  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  it 
might  naturally  be  supposed  that  the  question  would 


142  IMMORTALITY    OP   THE  SOUL. 

cease  to  be  a  disputed  one,  but  this  is  far  from  being 
the  fact  The  opposition  to  this  great  truth,  while  it  is 
more  covert,  is  also  more  bitter  and  violent,  than  in  the 
schools  of  Paganism.  It  comes  up  in  new  shapes,  under 
artful  disguises,  intended  to  quiet  the  moral  and  religious 
feehngs  and  principles,  while  aiming  a  blow  at  a  truth 
fundamental  to  all  religion,  and  the  basis  of  all  accounta- 
bility. To  the  proud,  the  profligate,  and  the  covetous,  in 
the  hght  of  the  Bible,  there  is  more  of  fear  than  hope  in 
the  promise  of  immortahty;  hence,  such  are  interested 
in  refuting  it; — while  the  natural  tendency  to  material- 
ism, which  arises  from  our  connection  with  the  external 
world,  is,  in  all  ages,  the  same ;  and  this  may  account  for 
the  pecuhar  hostility  and  bitterness  manifested  by  modern 
objectors,  who,  in  addition  to  the  light  of  nature,  are 
favored  with  the  express  testimony  of  God.  In  the  an- 
cient schools,  it  was  considered  a  philosophical  question ; 
it  is  now  regarded  in  its  moral  aspects,  and  consequently 
enlists  the  prejudices  and  passions  of  the  disputants. 

There  is  another  reason  why  the  question  of  the  natu- 
ral immortahty  of  the  soul  continues  to  be  a  mooted  one ; 
and  this  is,  the  influence  in  our  day  of  a  shallow  but 
popular  philosophy  in  relation  to  being,  which  maintains 
that  all  that  is  mysterious  and  difiicult  in  existence,  can 
be  fully  elucidated  when  the  ancient  prejudices  and  su- 
perstitions of  men  no  longer  oppose  the  light  of  science. 
The  wise  men  of  this  school  are  ready  to  exclaim,  "  Eu- 


IMMORTALITY   OF   THE    SOUL.  143 

reka,"  at  every  real  or  fancied  discovery  of  second  causes, 
as  though  they  were  approximating  to  a  full  explanation 
of  the  mystery  of  existence.  They  suppose  if  they  can 
establish  the  materiality  of  mind,  and  give  it  a  "  local 
habitation  and  a  name,"  and  exhibit  its  qualities  and  pro- 
perties, as  the  results  of  local  organization,  that  the  great 
problem  of  being  is  solved,  and  all  difficulties  forever  re- 
moved. 

No  such  result  would  follow  if  modern  materialism 
could  be  satisfactorily  established;  it  would  rather  in- 
crease than  remove  the  difficulties  which  beset  us  in  the 
department  of  Ontology.  Is  the  mystery  of  hfe  solved, 
when  we  are  told  that  the  soul  is  the  product  of  matter, 
and  that  mind  is  the  result  of  the  size  and  development 
of  certain  portions  of  the  brain  ?  If  we  grant  all  that  is 
asked  in  that  system,  which  is  the  "ultima  Thule"  of 
materialism,  by  which  the  mind  is  not  only  made  to  depend 
upon  a  material  organization,  and  is  surveyed  and  mapped 
JO  that  by  the  admeasurement  of  the  brain,  the  affections, 
passions,  and  intellectual  powers,  are  determined  by  num- 
ber and  quality,  by  measure  and  size,  in  what  respect  is 
the  philosophy  of  being  made  easy  ?  It  reduces,  indeed, 
the  philosophy  of  mind  to  the  science  of  numbers,  and 
the  laws  of  magnitude  and  proportion ;  but  it  is  no  ex- 
tion  of  the  mystery  of  existence  were  its  truth  ad- 


We  consider  the  immateriality  of  the  soul  established, 


144  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

from  the  well  known  and  oft  repeated  argument  derived 
from  the  fact,  that  the  powers  and  properties  of  mind 
are  essentially  different  from  those  of  matter.  We  know 
substances  only  by  their  properties.  Matter  is  tangible, 
divisible,  and  inert — mind  is  neither.  Matter  is  unintel- 
ligent in  its  parts,  and  in  all  its  combinations,  multiplied 
and  diversified  as  they  are,  by  the  advanced  state  of  phy- 
sical science.  Matter  does  not  even  possess  the  power 
of  originating  the  lowest  forms  of  life,  for  it  has  been 
shown  that  the  animalcule  which  were  once  thought  to 
be  generated  by  the  decomposition  and  fermentation  of 
various  substances,  are  propagated  from  the  egg,  and 
their  kinds  perpetuated  by  the  same  laws  and  in  the 
same  manner  as  other  portions  of  the  animal  creation 
There  is  no  affinity  or  likeness  whatever  between  reflec- 
tion, memory,  reason,  and  judgment,  and  the  known  pro- 
perties of  matter.  Hence  the  conclusion  that  they  have 
nothing  in  common,  being  totally  diverse  in  essence,  and 
united  in  man  for  a  special  purpose  by  omnipotent 
power. 

That  we  are  endued  with  capacities  for  enjoyment 
and  suffering,  that  we  are  possessed  of  thought,  feeling, 
memory,  and  conscience,  is  proof  that  we  shall  continue 
to  retain  and  exercise  them,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that 
natural  death  is  the  destruction  of  the  mental  powers. 
We  can  only  know  what  death  is,  from  its  conse- 
quences, which  are  the  loss  of  animal  life  and  the  disso- 


IMMORTALITY    OF   THE    SOUL.  146 

lution  of  the  body  back  to  its  original  elements ;  but  as 
the  mind  is  not  divisible,  or  a  compound  of  decomposable 
substances,  there  seems  to  be  no  evidence  that  any  such 
loss  or  change,  does  or  can  take  place  with  respect  to  the 
soul  The  exhibition  of  its  powers  is  no  longer  before 
our  observation  ;  but  is  this  proof  of  annihilation? 
This  is  not  the  fate  of  the  matter  of  which  the  body  is 
composed,  for  that  is  only  resolved  into  its  original 
elements.  What  reason,  then,  have  we  to  conclude  that 
the  mental  powers  are  destroyed  ?  What  evidence  have 
we  that  ceasing  to  be  exhibited  in  our  sight,  the  soul  ex- 
ists no  where  ?  We  have  witnessed  the  death  and  decom- 
position of  the  body;  but  who  has  seen  the  soul  die? 
We  have  assisted  to  lay  the  lifeless  form  in  the  tomb ; 
but  who  has  aided  to  commit  to  the  dark  and  narrow 
house  the  spirit,  with  its  afifections,  memories,  and  hopes  ? 
What  traveler  has  returned  from  his  wanderings  over 
creation  and  through  the  vast  regions  of  space,  with  the 
melancholy  report  that  he  could  find  no  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  mind,  and  that  with  powers  to  understand 
and  appreciate  the  extent  and  grandeur  of  the  entire 
universe,  the  soul  was  annihilated  the  moment  its  fetters 
were  removed,  looking  out  for  an  instant,  and  through 
an  imperfect  medium,  upon  the  design,  and  order,  and 
glory  of  the  material  things  created  for  its  inspection, 
and  then  extinguished  forever. 

We  have  evidence,  also,  that  the  soul  acts,  when  the 


14d  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

ordinary  functions  of  the  body  are  suspended.  Every 
one  is  familiar  with  the  activity  of  the  mind  during  the 
hours  when  the  senses  are  locked  in  slumber,  and  all 
external  objects  absent.  It  is  then  that  the  soul  creates 
a  world  of  its  own,  and  roams  at  large  in  an  existence 
purely  ideal. 

But  a  stronger  evidence  of  the  independence  of  the 
mental  faculties  is  derived  from  those  well  established 
cases  of  trance,  when  the  suspension  of  sensation  has 
been  so  evident  and  entire  that  the  ablest  physicians 
have  pronounced  the  patient  dead,  yet  after  the  unex- 
pected reanimation  of  the  body  the  individual  has  fur- 
nished ample  testimony  of  the  continued  activity  of  the 
soul.  In  some  cases,  persons  of  whose  decease  there 
remained  no  doubt,  have  been  conscious  of  all  that  tran- 
spired around  them,  even  of  the  dehberations  in  regard 
to  their  own  interment.  This  was  estabhshed  in  a  cele- 
brated judicial  trial  in  France,  in  the  case  of  a  lady 
entombed,  whose  extraordinary  recovery,  and  the  ro- 
mantic affection  by  whose  instrumentality  it  was  accom- 
phshed,  together  with  the  legal  questions  which  arose 
in  connection  with  it,  gave  great  publicity  to  the  whole 
transaction.  In  other  cases  the  soul  appears  to  take  its 
departure  from  its  clay  tenement,  and  roams  elsewhere, 
unconscious  of  the  circumstances  which  surround  the 
deserted  body,  sensible  of  its  departure  from  it,  and  of 
holding  converse  with  distant  objects. 


IMMORTAUTY    OF   THE    SOUL.  147 

In  the  case  of  the  Rev.  William  Tennant,  of  New 
Jersey,  a  man  of  learning  and  piety,  and  of  unquestioned 
yeracity,  there  were  all  the  tokens  of  death,  and  his 
body  was  kept  out  of  the  grave  beyond  the  usual  time 
only  by  the  urgency  of  a  friend.  At  the  time  of  bis  re- 
animation  a  large  circle  of  friends  were  present  for  the 
purpose  of  attending  his  funeral.  After  his  recovery 
from  apparent  "death,  he  solenmly  affirmed  that  he  had 
been  conscious  of  the  period  when  the  soul  left  the  body, 
and  of  its  return ;  that  he  had  looked  upon  the  eternal 
world,  and,  with  the  apostle  Paul,  had  heard  things 
which  he  thought  it  not  lawful  to  utter.  He  averred 
that  his  return  to  the  body  was  with  reluctance,  and  ac- 
companied with  excessive  pain.  It  was  a  remarkable 
feature  in  the  case  of  Tennant,  that  he  had  lost  all 
recollection  of  the  learned  languages  with  which  he  had 
been  familiar,  and  for  some  time  could  neither  read  nor 
write  his  mother  tongue.  This  was  undoubtedly  an  ex- 
traordinary case,  but,  if  believed,  establishes  most  clearly 
the  inmiateriality  of  the  soul,  and  its  power  of  acting  in- 
dependently of  animal  organization,  and  indeed  while  ab- 
sent from  the  body,  as  a  superadded  independent  essence. 

Another  fact  which  establishes  the  independence 
of  mind,  both  of  matter  and  time,  is  the  amazing  ra- 
pidity of  its  action  and  succession,  which  are  totally 
inconsistent  with  the  notion  of  a  precedent  movement  of 
the  organs.    Many  will  recollect  having  in  their  dreams 


-.'ii^. 


148  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    BOUL. 

passed  through  a  multitude  of  events,  and  experienced  a 
variety  of  changes,  which,  if  real,  would  properiy  belong 
to  a  series  of  years,  and  yet  it  has  all  transpired  in  the 
mind  in  a  few  moments  of  time ;  and  though  the  events 
have  not  in  fact  occurred,  the  mental  action  and  suc- 
cession are  as  real  as  if  they  had ;  the  mind  has  actually 
gone  through  a  series  of  suffering  and  enjojmient, 
although  the  sources  of  its  ideas  are  imaginary. 

A  sound  will  sometimes  produce  a  dream  and  also 
awaken  the  individual,  and  in  an  instant  a  long  mental 
succession  will  have  occurred  wholly  inconsistent  with 
the  idea  of  any  corresponding  organic  action,  and  even 
of  the  notion  of  time.  A  noise  in  an  adjoining  room 
suggested  a  dream  and  at  the  same  moment  awakened 
the  individual,  who,  in  the  brief  moment,  dreamed  that 
he  had  enlisted  as  a  soldier,  joined  his  regiment,  deserted 
afterwards,  been  next  apprehended  and  carried  back; 
afterwards  tried  by  a  court  martial,  condemned,  and 
carried  out  for  execution.  After  the  usual  preparations 
a  gun  was  fired,  and  he  awoke  with  the  report,  which 
was  the  sound  from  the  vicinity  which  had  suggested 
the  dream.  Is  not  this  inconsistent  with  the  notion  of 
any  correspondent  physical  action  of  the  brain,  which,  if 
the  real  origin  of  thought  or  even  its  necessary  medium, 
must  from  necessity  act  pari  passu  with  the  intellect, 
which  it  originates  or  developes  ?  Does  it  not  exhibit 
the  soul  as  acting  independent  of  time,  and,  of  course. 


IMMORTALITV    OF    THE    SOUL.  140 

of  the  action  of  any  material  agent,  which  must,  by  a 
known  law,  be  measured  by  time  ?  How  often  is  the 
remark  made,  that  one  man  lives  longer  in  one  year  than 
another  in  seventy — which  is  true  in  an  intellectual  and 
moral  sense.  One  man  may  feel,  suffer  and  enjoy  more 
in  one  day,  than  another  in  one  year.  This  kind  of  suc- 
cession is  independent  of  time,  and  is,  perhaps,  charac- 
teristic of  the  unseen  world;  for  we  cannot  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  some  kind  of  succession  is  incident  to  all 
created  intelligences.  Days,  months,  and  years,  are 
reckoned  from  planetary  revolutions;  but  we  can  con- 
ceiye  nothing  like  this  of  that  which  is  purely  imma- 
terial— of  intelligence  divested  of  a  material  organization ; 
hence  we  have  in  the  incomprehensible  activity  of  the 
soul  an  evidence  of  its  immateriality,  its  independence, 
and  a  presentiment  of  its  future  state. 

Without  the  light  of  revelation,  the  notion  of  an  imma- 
terial organization,  of  a  spiritual  body,  has  almost  uni- 
versally obtained  The  shades  of  departed  spirits,  which 
occupy  so  prominent  a  place  in  the  poetry  of  the  most 
refined  periods  of  Greece  and  Rome,  as  well  as  in  the 
harsh  and  warlike  verse  of  the  northern  Barbarians, 
were  but  the  symbols  of  the  popular  belief  Nor  is 
the  same  evidence  wanting  now  of  the  power  and 
natural  tendency  of  the  mind  to  form  the  idea  of  a 
"  spiritual  body,"  in  the  absence  of  all  revelation  on  the 
subject     Without  intending  in  any  measure  to  indorse 


160  IMMORTALITY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

the  superstitious  fancies  which  are  formed,  both  in  Pagan 
and  Christian  lands,  in  regard  to  spirits  and  ghosts,  yet 
an  argument  of  no  small  importance  is  derived  from  the 
tendency  of  the  mind  to  form  the  idea  of  intelligence  di- 
vested of  a  material  body — a  most  extraordinary  fact,  if 
the  soul  be  the  product  of  matter,  or  necessarily  de- 
veloped through  an  animal  economy.  It  is  also  worthy  of 
remark,  that  mind,  independent  of  time,  is  only  partially 
limited  by  matter  and  space.  We  pass  in  idea  beyond 
the  precincts  of  one  planet — We  go  from  system  to  sys- 
tem, from  sun  to  sun,  throughout  the  extended  universe 
of  God.  We  travel  over  the  creation  in  an  instant. 
Space  does  not  hold  and  confine  thought — it  passes  be- 
yond the  works  of  God  and  surveys  the  regions 

"  Where  eldest  night 
And  Chaos,  ancestors  of  nature,  hold 
Eternal  anarchy." 

This  illimitable  range,  it  is  true,  is  but  the  survey  of 
thought;  the  soul  is,  to  a  great  extent,  confined  and 
bound  in  its  clay  tabernacle,  and  it  is  one  proof  of  its 
natural  immortahty,  that  this  is  felt  Man  is  surrounded 
by  walls  which  he  continually  endeavors  to  overleap. 
His  natural  antagonists  are  time  and  space ;  and  to  over- 
come the  clogs  with  which  matter  restrains  him,  is  the 
constant  aim  of  his  inventions.  To  increase  the  rapidity 
of  his  motion,  to  overleap  the  space  which  separates  him 
from  different  places  and  objects,  he  tortures  the  elements, 


IMMORTALITY    OF   THE    SOUL.  161 

and  by  the  powerful  action  of  fire  and  water  in  the 
generation  of  steam,  attacks  the  barriers  of  nature. 
Strange,  indeed,  if  the  soul  is  the  product  of 'matter,  that 
it  should  maintain  a  perpetual  war  with  its  parent,  and 
should  so  often  prove  the  victor  !  That  the  soul  is  often 
sensible  of  the  restraints  of  the  physical  organization  with 
which  it  is  connected,  is  a  most  unaccountable  fact,  if  it 
is  the  product  of  such  an  organization.  Who  has  not 
felt  his  thoughts  fettered,  and  his  soul,  yet  active  and 
vigorous,  compelled  to  a  cessation  from  its  pursuits  by 
the  frailty  of  the  body  ?  We  have  sentence  of  death  in 
our  members,  but  not^  in  the  same  sense,  in  the  soul. 
The,  seeds  of  disease  are  planted  in  the  animal  nature. 
Pain,  fatigue,  and  sickness,  furnish  constant  admonition 
that  the  night  is  at  hand  when  the  material  form  shall 
return  to  the  dust ;  but  whDe  the  soul  sympathizes  and  is 
wearied  with  the  suffering  body,  does  it  furnish  any  evi- 
dence of  its  own  approaching  dissolution  ?  If  the  mind 
is  dependent  upon  a  material  organization  for  its  existence, 
or  even  for  its  development,  there  must  be  a  uniform  de- 
cay of  its  powers,  after  the  maturity  of  the  animal  frame. 
There  would  necessarily  be  an  exact  correspondence  be- 
tween the  producing  cause  and  its  effect  in  all  circum- 
stances, as  in  the  case  of  machinery,  where  the  motion  and 
action  of  the  thousand  wheels  always  exactly  correspond 
with  the  moving  power.  This  is  a  principle  too  familliar  to 
be  questioned.     If  this  exact  agreement  and  correspond- 


162  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

ence  cannot  be  established,  materialism  falls  to  the  ground. 
It  is  an  issue  which  materialists  must  meet,  however 
anxious  to  avoid  it,  by  diverting  the  attention  of  the  public 
to  the  frivolous  details  of  particular  developments  of  the 
brain.  They  have  no  right  to  take  the  main  question  as 
granted ;  they  have  been  suffered  too  long  to  confine  the 
argument  to  minute  and  trifling  details ;  we  should  bring 
them  back  to  the  main  question  and  compel  their  atten- 
tion to  the  true  issue — whether  there  is  such  a  corres- 
pondence between  the  organization  which  is  claimed  to 
be  the  origin  of  mind  and  the  mind  itself,  as  must  neces- 
sarily exist  between  a  moving  and  its  subordinate  power — 
between  cause  and  effect.  We  confidently  affirm  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  that,  notwithstanding  the  sympathy  be- 
tween body  and  soul,  there  is  no  agreement  or  corres- 
pondence in  their  action  which  indicates  the  production 
of  mind,  from  any  part  of  the  organization  of  the  material 
frame,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  there  is  that  diversity 
and  disagreement  in  their  states,  which  establishes  the 
immateriality  of  the  mind.  Will  any  physiologist  ven- 
ture to  deny  that  the  intellectual  powers  are  often  dis- 
eased and  weak,  when  the  body  is  in  health  and  the 
functions  of  all  its  various  organs  in  full  and  perfect  ac- 
tion ?  That  the  mind  is  frequently  vigorous  and  active 
even  in  the  hour  of  death  ?  It  is  not  denied  that  there 
exists  a  powerful  sympathy  between  body  and  mind,  but 
it  is  the  sympathy  of  connection  and  union,  not  of  cause 


IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL.  153 

and  eflfect;  besides,  the  character  of  this  mental  action  is 
such  as  to  show  the  natural  superiority  and  independence 
of  the  soul;  for  mental  suffering  always  prostrates  the 
physical  powers,  while  organic  disease  does  not  always, 
or  often,  weaken  the  intellect 

The  animal  nature  is,  not  unusually,  prematurely 
worn  out  by  the  action  of  mind,  and  death  is  often 
the  consequence  of  its  extraordinary  development  and 
powerful  excitement  This  would  never  happen  if  ma- 
terialism be  true,  for  the  stream  cannot  rise  above  the 
fountain. 

It  often  has  been  urged  and  reiterated  by  materialists, 
that  the  intellectual  faculties  are  uniformly  enfeebled  by 
old  age ;  and  this  is  beUeved  by  many  who  have  never 
taken  the  trouble  to  ascertain  the  truth  by  personal  ob- 
servation. We  venture  to  assert,  that  in  a  very  large 
majority  of  cases,  the  mental  powers  are  sound  and  unim- 
paired in  aged  persons.  Accurate  observation  will,  in 
most  cases,  show,  that  the  allegation  is  founded  on  a  mere 
prejudice,  arising  from  the  fact*  that  persons  rendered 
infirm  by  years  do  not  take  the  interest  in  passing  events 
that  they  once  did — the  senses  are  blunted  by  age,  and 
the  memory  of  recent  facts  has  become  feeble.  That  the 
&culty  of  memory  is  not  impaired,  is  obvious  from  the 
minute  recollections  of  the  aged,  with  regard  to  persons 
and  objects  with  which  they  were  famiUar  at  an  early 
age.  Nor  is  it  always  easy  to  draw  out  the  man  of  many 
1 


154  IMMORTALITY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

years;  but  silence  and  contemplation  are  no  marks  of 
mental  weakness;  and  he  who  is  careful  to  know  the 
truth,  and  will  use  the  proper  effort  to  ascertain  the  real 
state  of  the  mental  powers  of  the  aged,  will  find,  for  the 
most  part,  that  they  are  as  vigorous  and  active  as  at  any 
period  of  hfe.  I  speak  from  personal  observation,  when 
I  alledge  that  individuals  of  great  age,  accompanied  with 
many  and  painful  infirmities  of  body,  do  possess  a  vigor 
of  intellect  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  theory  of  mate- 
rialism. They  are  not  fitted,  it  is  true,  for  the  active  du- 
ties of  life,  but  this  is  the  result  of  the  decay,  not  of  the 
mental,  but  the  animal  powers.  Every  one  accustomed 
to  observe  the  state  of  those  afflicted  with  lingering  sick- 
ness, cannot  fail  to  have  remarked  the  activity  and  vigor 
of  the  mind,  which  seems  to  be  sometimes  sharpened 
by  the  weakness  of  the  body,  and  especially  by  the  change 
from  the  full  habit  of  perfect  health  to  the  attenuation  of 
disease.  Even  in  the  hour  of  mortal  agony,  when  the 
dark  wing  of  the  angel  of  death  has  cast  its  shadow  upon 
the  clay  tabernacle,  when  sight  and  hearing  are  gone, 
and  every  pulsation  of  the  heart  seems  to  be  the  last,  the 
soul  has  been  known  to  give  evidence  of  undiminished 
power.  Such  cases  are  rare  because  we  are  not  often 
permitted  to  know  what  passes  in  the  solemn  moment  of 
departure,  when  the  soul,  like  a  bird  escaping  from  its 
cage,  is  fluttering  at  the  avenue  of  its  dismissal.  But  one 
such  fact  is  a  fatal  blow  to  materialism ;  for  if  the  soul  does 


IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL.  155 

not  sicken,  languish,  and  die,  "vvith  the  organization  which 
is  claimed  as  its  origin,  it  is  independent  of  that  organi- 
zation. If  its  powers  are  exercised  in  the  article  of 
death,  it  survives  the  shock ;  for,  if  intelligence,  thought, 
memory  and  hope,  are  in  full  exercise  at  the  moment  of 
the  suspension  of  animal  powers  which  precedes  dissolu- 
tion, it  is  folly  to  talk  of  physical  developments  as  the 
origin  and  seat  of  mind.  "  Cessata  causa  cessat  effectus" 
is  a  maxim  older  than  that  gross  form  of  modern  mate- 
rialism, called  Phrenology. 

Nor  is  the  mind  dependent  upon  the  perfection  of  a 
material  organization.  This  is  often  taken  for  granted, 
but  remains  to  be  proved.  Perfectly  formed  persons  are 
often  idiots,  and  the  most  deformed  dwarfs,  like  Esop, 
have  been  celebrated  for  vigor  and  acuteness  of  intellect 
Certain  statements  have  been  confidently  put  forth, 
accompanied  by  engravings,  exhibiting  a  pecuhar  con- 
formation of  the  head  as  the  occasion  of  idiocy.  It  is  easy 
to  make  a  man  look  like  a  fool  in  a  picture,  another 
thing  to  show  the  living  subject  We  make  an  issue  of 
fact  with  materialists  on  this  point  We  aflfirm  that  a 
majority  of  those  unhappy  persons  who  have  never 
possessed,  or  are  deprived  of  reason  in  the  providence  of 
God,  are  perfectly  formed  persons,  not  marked  by  any 
peculiar  formation  of  the  head,  and,  least  of  all,  by  that 
low,  declining  forehead  of  which  so  many  pictures  are 
seen,  and  so  few  living  specimens  exhibited.     The  truth 


156  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

is,  they  cannot  be  found.  It  is  a  thing  in  which  for  once 
materialists  have  condescended  to  entertain  the  ideal,  and 
amuse  the  pubHc  with  fancies  rather  than  facts.  Nor 
does  intelligence  depend  absolutely  upon  the  size  or  per- 
fection of  any  single  organ.  Though  the  brain,  from 
which  proceeds  all  sensation,  cannot  be  materially  affected 
without  the  loss  of  life,  and  injuries  inflicted  upon  it  do 
sometimes  affect  the  reason,  yet  it  is  by  no  means  true, 
that  any  connection  has  been  established  which  proves 
that  the  brain  is  even  the  seat  of  the  soul.  It  is  a  disputed 
point,  and  hkely  to  remain  so,  from  the  great  diversity  of 
phenomena  on  the  subject.  The  question  yet  hes  open, 
notwithstanding  the  attempts  of  modern  materialists  to 
make  partitions  of  the  prominences  of  the  brain  among 
the  affections,  passions,  and  intellectual  powers.  Even  the 
argument  from  the  volume  of  the  brain  has  been  shown 
to  be  worthless ;  for  Dr.  Good  has  given  us  a  catalogue 
of  several  animals,  in  whom  this  organ  is  larger  in 
proportion  to  their  size  than  in  man.  And  we  are  told 
by  Dr.  Bostick,  that  the  size  of  an  organ  is  no  indication 
of  the  degree  of  its  powers.  Nor  is  the  reason  always 
affected  by  the  most  violent  disorders  of  this  organ.  A 
patient  of  the  well  known  Dr.  Abercrombie,  retained  his 
faculties  in  the  dying  hour,  whose  brain  was  afterwards 
found  to  be  suffused  with  a  pound  of  water. 

It  is  also  worthy  of  remark,  that  man  does  not  possess 
a  superiority  in  any  of  the  senses ;  his  sight  is  not  so  acute, 


IMMORTAUTY    OF    THE    SOUL.  167 

his  hearing  not  so  perfect*  nor  his  taste  so  exquisite,  as 
they  are  found  to  exist  in  a  multitude  of  animals.  On 
the  principles  of  materialists,  those  animal  organizations 
which  possess  the  most  considerable  volume  of  brain, 
together  with  the  greatest  perfection  in  those  senses 
which  are  the  inlets  of  knowledge,  ought  to  exhibit  a 
mental  superiority  to  man ! 

The  inomateriality  of  mind  may  be  established  also  by 
the  diflference  which  is  observable  between  reason  and 
mstinct  Reason  in  man  is  capable  of  unlimited  im- 
provement It  has  been  developing  its  resources  from 
the  creation  to  the  present  time,  while  instinct  in  animals 
is  marked  by  no  such  progress,  being  incapable  of 
advance,  and  existing  in  the  young  animal  in  the  same 
perfection  as  at  the  later  periods  of  its  existence.  In- 
stinct is  infallible,  certain  and  involuntary  in  its  action — 
reason  the  reverse.  Instinct  is  not  acquired  by  education, 
but  is  inherent ;  not  communicated  by  instruction  or  lost 
by  neglect — calling  for  no  exercise  of  choice,  and  involving 
neither  praise  or  blame;  evidently  designed  to  secure 
with  certainty  the  enjoyments  suitable  to  a  brief  exist- 
ence. But  man  is  endowed  with  powers  capable  of  end- 
less improvement*  indicative  of  immortality;  his  choice 
goes  iai  to  determine  both  his  character  and  condition, 
and  the  freedom  of  his  will  constitutes  his  accountability. 
Is  this  extraordinary  diversity  between  reason  and  instinct 
indicated  by  a  comparison  of  the  organs  of  men  and 


156  IMMORTALITY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

animals  ?  This  is  not  pretended,  for  materialists  assert 
that  the  ferocity  and  wickedness  of  man  result  from  an 
organization  of  the  brain,  hke  that  of  the  lion  and  tiger. 
With  a  strange  blindness  to  its  results  upon  their  system, 
they  place  reason  and  instinct  upon  the  same  foundation, 
and  make  the  same  cause  result  in  opposite  efiFects. 
Their  grand  object,  we  think,  is  to  destroy  at  once  the 
expectation  of  immortality  and  remove  the  restraints  of 
moral  accountability.  We  have  been  told  by  some  of 
their  lecturers,  that  bad  men  are  not  properly  wicked — 
only  dangerous;  and  that  a  cruel  and  savage  temper  is 
predicable  of  an  organization  like  that  which  leads  the 
tiger  to  seek  his  prey,  upon  the  principles  of  his  physical 
constitution.  A  system  which  teaches  such  a  sentiment 
is  contrary  to  the  evidence  of  consciousness,  confounds 
all  distinctions  of  virtue  and  vice,  and  destroys  all  sense 
of  obligation,  all  notions  of  obedience  to  laws  and  govern- 
ment, and  leaves  men  without  hindrance  to  consult  their 
animal  propensities  with  the  brute  races.  This  exceeds 
the  worst  systems  of  the  most  debauched  periods.  It  is 
what  the  ancient  Atheists  did  not  dream  of  accomplishing^ 
The  position  carried  to  its  legitimate  results  would  de- 
stroy the  institution  of  marriage,  justify  the  promiscuous 
intercourse  of  the  sexes,  make  all  law  tyranny  and  all 
punishment  injustice.  It  is  not  possible  to  go  beyond 
this,  in  the  process  of  degrading  human  nature.  It  is 
the  bottom  of  the  pit,  found  at  length,  down  which  infi- 


IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL.  159 

delity  would  thrust  all  order,  law  and  religion,  and  pos- 
sesses at  least  this  doubtful  merit,  that  there  is  nothing 
beyond  it,  as  an  apology  for  unbelief  or  as  a  justifi- 
cation of  transgression.  We  do  not  mean  to  be  un- 
derstood that  all,  or  a  majority  of  those  who  have  lis- 
tened favorably  to  the  specious  details  of  modern  mate- 
rialism, have  perceived  or  are  prepared  to  acquiesce  in  its 
results.  The  leaders  know  well  that  it  will  not  do  to 
shock  pubhc  sentiment  with  these  outrageous  conclu- 
sions until  retreat  is  impossible.  The  absolute  physical 
necessity  which  is  the  inevitable  result  of  this  system, 
should  be  faithfully  exhibited  by  those  who  watch  th€ 
signs  of  the  times;  the  mask  should  be  torn  from  this 
mystery  of  iniquity,  its  sophistry  detected,  and  its  conse- 
quences exposed.  Especially  should  our  young  men 
who  go  out  from  our  seminaries,  be  prepared  to  meet  this 
shallow  but  popular  philosophy,  which  is  Uke  to  prove 
one  of  the  most  powerful  auxiliaries  to  the  innovating 
spirit  of  the  age,  in  its  attacks  upon  long  established 
truths  in  philosophy,  morals,  and  religion. 

It  may  be  urged  that  we  have  nothing  to  do  with 
consequences,  that  facts  must  determine  the  controversy. 
We  should  be  content  with  this:  "fiat  jmiitia,  mat  coe- 
lunif"  is  an  old  and  just  maxim.  What  then  is  the  sys- 
tem, and  what  the  facts  by  which  it  is  supported  ?  This 
boasted  scheme,  so  much  urged  upon  the  attention  of 
the  public,  which  seeks  admittance  to  our  halls  of  learn- 


160  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

ing  and  our  temples  of  faith,  is  but  the  revival  of  the 
ancient  materialism,  in  a  new  and  most  offensive  shape. 
Its  advocates  assert,  with  the  old  materialists,  that  the 
brain  is  the  originating  cause  of  intellect ;  and  they  have 
gone  a  step  beyond  their  predecessors  in  furnishing 
every  faculty,  passion,  and  propensity,  with  a  particular 
organ,  which  is  at  once  the  cause  and  the  index  of  mind 
and  its  properties.  The  soul  is  weighed,  measured  and 
divided,  and  mental  philosophy  reduced  to  number  and 
quantity.  They  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  procuring 
the  indorsement  of  any  learned  body  in  Europe  or 
America,  and,  with  some  few  exceptions,  the  system  is  in 
the  hands  of  itinerating  and  self-elected  professors. 

This  is  not  said  for  the  purpose  of  prejudicing  the 
argument,  but  because  the  advocates  of  Phrenology  are 
accustomed  to  alledge  that  the  learned  European  world 
have  received  and  favored  their  system,  which  is  by  no 
means  the  fact.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  many  hold 
this  system  in  a  way  to  divest  it  of  its  most  glaring  errors. 
Such  consider  the  development  of  the  brain  as  merely 
indicative  of  the  character  of  the  man,  exhibiting  his  vir- 
tues and  vices  as  they  have  been  fixed  by  his  own  choice. 
This  view,  of  course,  leaves  the  question  of  morals  un- 
touched; but  we  must  be  allowed  to  remark  that  this 
is  not  Phrenology,  or  any  thing  else ;  for  what  is  meant 
by  the  assertion,  that  the  passions  and  affections  of  the 
mind  previously  existing  and  acting,  are  merely  indicated 


IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL.  161 

by  the  size  and  appearance  of  an  organ,  as  anger  is  indi- 
cated by  the  expression  of  the  countenance?  The 
countenance,  especially  the  eye,  was  evidently  designed 
as  the  index  of  the  soul,  not  by  size,  but  by  expression; 
but  where  is  the  proof  that  mind  is  capable  of  producing 
the  eflfects  of  size  and  form,  and  of  enlarging  and  dimin- 
ishing a  particular  organ  ?  This  is  to  make  the  organ 
the  result  of  mental  action;  it  is  to  give  a  new  and 
extraordinary  faculty  to  the  soul — that  of  producing,  or 
at  least  increasing,  the  bulk  of  matter — a  thing  incon- 
ceivable. It  is  by  representations  like  these,  that  the  sys- 
tem is  imposed  upon  those  who  would  reject  it  with 
abhorrence,  if  they  perceived  its  true  tendency ;  but  in- 
dications are  not  wanting,  that  many  of  its  advocates  and 
self-elected  professors  are  ready  to  urge  its  legitimate 
results. 

We  have  been  told  from  the  lecturer's  desk,  and 
from  the  press,  that  Phrenology  is  to  change  all  systems 
of  education,  law,  and  government  It  has  been  said 
and  reiterated,  that  bad  men  are  not  to  be  treated  as 
criminal,  only  confined  as  dangerous;  that  merchants 
are  to  choose  their  clerks,  husbands  their  wives,  and 
young  men  their  friends,  by  the  certain  test  of  the  phy- 
sical conformation  of  the  brain,  rather  than  the  uncertain 
tests  of  conduct  and  character.  It  has  been  boastingly 
said,  that,  if  the  Bible  is  opposed  to  Phrenology,  it  must 
{aU. ;  and  infideUty  already  numbers  the  standard  works 
1* 


162  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

of  Phrenology  in  a  list  of  publications  furnished  by  one 
of  her  leading  journals  in  Boston. 

In  addition  to  what  has  already  been  said,  we  assert 
that  Phrenology  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  our  con- 
sciousness. God  has  so  constituted  man  that  he  is  con- 
scious of  the  commission  of  sin,  when  he  indulges  in  the 
exercise  of  bad  passions,  or  violates  the  relations  which 
bind  him  to  society.  Like  the  lion  and  tiger,  men  often 
prey  upon  the  weak  and  defenceless,  but  they  are  sen- 
sible that  they  violate  their  moral  obligations,  and  are 
worthy  of  punishment ;  but  no  such  distinctions  of  right 
and  wrong  are  made  by  those  ferocious  animals  whose 
instincts  lead  them  always  to  fulfill  the  design  of  their 
existence.  Now,  a  system  which  gives  the  soul  and  its 
qualities,  reason  and  its  attributes,  no  higher  or  other 
foundation  than  the  same  physical  structure  which  deter- 
mines instinct  in  animals,  and  which,  in  its  pubhcations, 
exhibits  in  juxta  position  the  heads  of  men  and  brutes  to 
confirm  such  a  theory,  is  unworthy  of  serious  refutation. 
A  theory  like  this  makes  all  restraint  a  violation  of  the 
first  law  of  nature,  and  would  overthrow  all  law  and 
government ;  it  would  prostrate  the  halls  of  learning  and 
the  altars  of  faith,  and  leave  men  at  liberty  to  follow  those 
propensities  which  are  "evil,  and  only  evil,  and  that  con- 
tinually." It  has  been  said  that  we  are  approaching  this 
Millenium  of  Materialism ;  but  it  will  be  a  second  reign 
of  terror,  and  God  grant  it  may  not  happen  in  our  day. 


IMMORTALITY    OF   THE    SOUL.  163 

But  we  are  told  of  numerous  instances  of  the  detection 
of  character  by  the  examination  of  the  head.  Who  have 
been  the  judges  of  the  accuracy  of  the  Phrenologist's 
details  of  character  ?  Himself  and  the  subject  of  his  in- 
spection. The  presumption  of  the  one  and  the  vanity  of 
the  other,  are  an  ample  solution  of  phrenological  success 
■in  the  determination  of  the  prevailing  habits  and  propen- 
sities. The  truth  is,  if  numberless  failures  and  multipUed 
mistakes  prove  any  thing,  there  is  abundant  evidence 
of  the  falsehood  of  the  pretensions  of  Phrenology.  The 
ablest  professors  have  given  diflferent  accounts  of  the 
same  head,  not  recognizing  their  subject  at  the  second 
inspection ;  and  in  the  absence  of  personal  acquaintance, 
and  without  a  view  of  the  countenance,  which  is,  to  some 
extent,  an  index  of  the  mind,  phrenological  observations 
are  the  merest  guess  work.  Nothing  can  be  more  vague, 
uncertain,  and  unsatisfactory,  than  the  charts  of  cha- 
racter which  are  issued  for  a  consideration  to  guide  their 
^rtunate  possessors,  who,  after  all,  can  only  judge  of 
their  accuracy  by  what  they  knew  of  themselves  before — 
information,  one  would  think,  of  no  great  value.  It 
may  be  that  fiiith  in  this  science,  so  called,  is  sometimes 
excited  by  the  vanity  of  exhibiting  the  chart  of  a  good 
head,  which  is  at  once  a  certificate  of  intellect  and  cha- 
racter— and  cheap  enough,  if  good  for  any  thing,  which 
we  must  be  permitted  to  doubt.  There  is  also  a  natu- 
ral love  of  the  marvelous,  which  makes  men  credulous  of 


164  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

those  pretensions  which  promise  revelations  of  character 
and  fortune,  which  has  distinguished  every  age  of  the 
world  and  almost  every  condition  in  human  hfe.  It  is 
not  our  intention  to  wound  the  feelings  of  any  one ;  we 
are  aware  that  men  of  worth  and  talent  are  inclined  to 
favor  Phrenology,  but  may  we  not  be  allowed  to  entreat 
such  to  pause  before  committing  themselves  to  a  system 
which,  however  specious,  leads  to  the  grossest  mate- 
rialism, and  which,  however  explained  and  modified  by 
good  men,  is  a  terrible  engine  in  the  hands  of  the  wicked  ? 
We  hope,  and  venture  to  predict,  that  Phrenology  will 
prove  but  one  of  the  passing  folhes  of  the  age,  and  that 
some  in  this  assembly  will  live  to  see  it  laid  in  the  tomb, 
where  judicial  astrology,  animal  magnetism,  metallic 
tractoration,  and  the  theory  of  the  philosopher's  stone, 
repose  in  unbroken  silence,  without  the  hope  of  a  future 
resurrection. 

Finally,  the  immateriality  and  immortahty  of  the  soul 
are  fundamental  truths  which  should  be  taught  and  de- 
fended in  every  system  of  education,  as  they  are  in  every 
formula  of  religion.  They  are  first  principles,  upon  which 
the  educated  young  men  who  are  to  form  the  character 
of  the  age,  may  repose  with  entire  conviction  and  un- 
wavering faith.  It  is  one  thing  to  be  bigoted  to  certain 
opinions,  because  they  are  our  own,  and  another  to  hold 
steadfastly  to  first  truths  and  settled  principles.  The 
young  men  of  this  day   are  exceedingly  exposed  to  be 


IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL.  166 

misled  by  the  innovating  and  disorganizing  spirit  which 
is  infecting  many  of  our  seminaries  of  learning  and  re- 
ligion. It  is  your  duty  to  be  open  to  conviction,  and 
nothing  is  to  be  rejected  or  received,  for  the  single  reason 
that  it  is  new ;  but  it  is  no  mark  of  vigor  of  thought  or 
liberality  of  sentiment,  to  be  driven  about  by  "  every 
wind  of  doctrine."  There  are  facts  and  principles  which 
lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  reasoning,  established  by  the 
almost  universal  assent  of  mankind,  by  the  voice  of  con- 
science, and  the  word  of  God ;  whatever  is  opposed  to 
them  is  necessarily  false,  and  will  never  agitate  a  well 
balanced  mind.  Among  these  are  the  immateriality  and 
natural  immortality  of  the  souL  To  impeach  these  truths 
is  to  render  education  comparatively  valueless — to  re- 
move the  restraints  of  sin  and  the  incentives  to  virtue 
and  piety — to  contradict  the  sure  word  of  promise,  and 
cause  the  angel  of  hope  to  spread  his  golden  pinions  in 
flight  from  a  dark  and  desolate  world.  But  these  truths, 
and  those  connected  with  them  in  the  revelation  of  God, 
have  met  the  opposition,  and  defeated  the  malice  of 
"giants  of  old,  men  of  renown,"  and  are  not  likely  to 
fall  beneath  the  assaults  of  the  infidel  schools  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God,  re- 
vealing life  and  immortality,  will  make  its  way  by  the 
power  of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  over  the  graves  of  false  sys- 
tems of  philosophy  and  faith,  until  man  shall  be  redeemed 
from  the  thraldom  of  error  and  sin,  and  the  anthems  of 


166  IMMORTALITY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

heaven  declare  the  triumphs  of  the  Cross  in  words  once 
heard  by  the  prophet  in  vision — "  Holy,  holy,  holy  is 
the  Lord  of  Hosts,  The  whole  earth  is  full  of  His 

GLORY." 


LECTURE  VI 


THE     CONNECTION 

OF 

SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION. 


Upon  an  occasion  like  the  present,  there  is  but  one 
topic  which  could  suggest  itself  either  to  the  speaker  or 
the  audience,  as  appropriate  to  the  circumstances  under 
which  we  are  convened.  But  the  subject  of  Education, 
naturally  before  us  at  this  time,  is  one  which,  in  its  most 
comprehensive  sense,  includes  the  physical,  intellectual, 
and  moral  development  of  man,  embraces  the  vast  range 
of  science,  the  arts,  philosophy,  morals,  and  religion,  and 
involves,  in  its  full  discussion,  the  fortunes  and  hopes  of 
our  race  in  time,  and  their  destiny  in  the  world  to  come. 
You  will  not  expect  me,  at  this  time,  to  present  this 
subject  in  all  its  bearings;  and  there  is  a  single  topic 
which  is  forcibly  suggested  by  the  recent  change  in  the 

•  Ddivend  at  the  opening  of  Geneteo  Academy,  Oct.,  1849. 


168  THE    CONNECTION   OF 

administration  of  the  Institution  of  learning  whose  re- 
organization and  recommencement  has  assembled  us  to- 
day, to  which  I  shall  confine  your  attention  in  this  brief 
Address.  The  connection  of  reUgion  and  learning,  the  fact 
that  Education  necessarily  involves  the  idea  of  rehgious 
instruction  and  moral  training,  and  that  science  and  phi- 
losophy are  only  valuable  as  they  are  sanctified  by  faith, 
and  can  only  flourish  as  they  are  united  to  Christianity, 
are  themes  suitable  to  this  occasion,  and  which  may 
properly  introduce  to  the  public  an  Institution  professedly 
organized  on  Christian  principles,  and  subject  to  the 
oversight  and  direction  of  the  Presbyterian  church. 

So  various  are  the  views  entertained  in  regard  to  the 
subject  of  Education,  so  many  attempts  are  made  in  this 
country  to  divorce  science  from  faith,  and  such  a  variety 
of  false  and  untenable  positions  are  assumed,  by  those 
high  in  place  and  influence,  in  regard  to  the  true  design 
and  proper  mode  of  Education,  that  it  will  be  necessary 
to  commence  our  discussion  with  certain  general  prin- 
ciples, which,  once  established,  will,  it  is  believed,  settle 
the  question  in  all  unprejudiced  minds;  and  where 
they  do  not  convince,  inay  at  least,  perhaps,  silence 
those  who  have  sought  to  put  asunder  things  which,  in 
their  o^vn  nature  and  by  Divine  appointment,  are  in- 
separable. It  win  not  be  denied  that  man  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  inferior  races  by  the  capacity  of  edu- 
cation.    There  is   no  spontaneous    development  of  his 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  169 

mental  powers — no  instance  has  ever  occurred  in  which 
his  intellectual  faculties  have  been  evolved,  or  in  which 
his  mental  perceptions  have  become  clear  and  dis- 
tinct, without  Education.  All  the  powers  that  appertain 
to  man  as  a  moral,  accountable  and  rational  being,  must 
be  drawn  out — educed — or  educated.  The  things  in 
which  he  is  perfected  without  education,  are  those  which 
he  has  in  common  with  the  inferior  races.  The  animal 
nature,  which,  with  them,  he  possesses,  gains  nothing  in 
its  proportion  or  vigor  by  education  or  civilization.  The 
wild  Indian  who  roams  the  wilderness  and  lives  by  the 
chase,  is  a  model  of  the  perfection  of  the  mere  animal 
organization,  better  developed  under  the  rude  train- 
ing of  nature,  than  when  cradled  in  all  the  soft  ap- 
pliances of  art  That  in  man  which  most  resembles  the 
natural  instinct  of  animals,  is  far  more  perfect  in  savage 
than  in  civilized  life.  Every  sense  is  more  acute  and 
active.  Something  almost  hke  the  mysterious  power 
which  enables  the  wild  beast  to  follow  his  prey, 
or  pursue  a  desired  course  with  undeviating  accuracy, 
or  like  that  which  teaches  the  bird  of  passage  to  take 
its  flight  across  a  continent  without  chart  or  compass, 
is  seen  in  those  tribes  who  roam  over  plains  and  forests, 
without  any  certain  dwelling  place,  and  without  the  first 
rudiments  of  education.  Yet  the  difference  between  the 
most  highly  cultivated  and  educated,  and  the  most 
sarage  and  barbarous  of  men,  is  not  nearly  so  great  as 


iro 


THE    CONNECTION    OF 


that  which  separates  the  lowest  and  most  miserable  spe- 
cimens of  mankind  from  the  highest  among  the  inferior 
orders  of  life,  guided  simply  by  instinct.  There  is  no 
condition  of  our  humanity  so  degraded  by  ignorance  or 
darkened  by  sin,  but  that  the  proofs  of  its  original  ele- 
vation and  amazing  capability  are  at  hand.  To  the  idea 
of  God,  and  of  an  invisible  world,  which  is  almost  if  not 
entirely  universal,  man,  in  his  rudest  state,  recognizes 
the  original  relations  in  which  the  Creator  bound  the 
human  family;  marriage,  in  some  form,  exists — govern- 
ment of  some  kind  is  maintained — while  some  general 
principles  of  rectitude,  some  universal  distinctions  of  right 
and  wrong,  some  just  ideas  of  virtue  and  vice,  of  truth 
and  falsehood,  prevail.  But  not  only  is  man  seen  to  be 
a  moral  and  accountable  being,  in  whatever  place  or  con- 
dition he  is  found,  but  his  intellectual  powers  are  so  far 
developed  as  to  show  that  he  belongs  to  the  brotherhood 
of  the  human  family,  and  only  needs  education  to  place 
him  upon  the  level  of  his  most  favored  brethren.  The 
Greenlander,  who  is  reckoned  among  the  most  debased 
and  ignorant  of  savages,  living  in  a  dreary  climate,  which 
is  an  apt  emblem  of  his  condition,  has  exhibited  the  in- 
ventive and  reasoning  powers  of  our  common  humanity, 
in  the  construction  of  a  vessel  which  excites  the  ad- 
miration and  defies  the  competition  of  civilized  and  edu- 
cated men.  Compelled  by  his  necessities,  he  has  con- 
structed a  boat,  without  wood,  iron,  or  cordage,  of  the 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  I7l 

bones  and  skins  of  the  amphibious  animals  on  whom  he 
subsists,  with  which  he  navigates  the  boisterous  seas  of 
the  North,  and  rides  out  storms  which  would  founder 
our  best  constructed  Ufe-boats.  This  admirable  vessel 
the  Greenlander  alone  can  navigate — pursuing  his  prey 
in  the  stormy  watei-s  that  girt  his  frozen  soil,  in  tempests 
and  amid  dangers  which  would  appall  the  heart  of  the 
stoutest  seaman — when  capsized,  recovering  himself  by 
a  stroke  of  his  oar,  restoring  to  its  proper  position  his  life- 
boat, which,  overturning,  can  neither  fill  or  sink.  The 
necessities  of  the  rudest  states  have  called  out,  in  some 
form,  the  inventive  faculties  of  the  most  uncouth  bar- 
barians. The  religious  principle,  the  capability  of  moral 
distinctions,  the  rudiments  of  marriage  and  government, 
the  exercise  of  the  intellectual  and  inventive  faculties, 
however  the  extent  be  limited,  separates  the  most  de- 
based savage  from  the  most  sagacious  animal  by  an  im- 
passable gulf. 

The  Une  of  separation  between  reason  and  instinct  is 
abundantly  manifest  All  attempts  to  confound  two 
things  80  entirely  diverse,  if  not  opposite,  have  proved 
signal  failures.  The  slightest  examination  will  show  that 
they  are  without  likeness  or  analogy.  Instinct  is  in- 
fallible in  its  dictates  and  conclusions;  reason,  though  a 
higher  faculty,  is  fallible  in  both.  Instinct  guides  the 
animal  invariably  to  the  precise  end  of  his  being;  rea- 
son, in  man,  forms  an  insufficient  guide  to  truth,  holiness. 


1^2  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

and  happiness.  Instinct  admits  of  no  improvement,  and 
never  advances;  it  is  made  no  wiser  by  age,  no  more 
safe  by  experience.  It  is  in  one  generation  what  it  was 
at  the  beginning;  and  in  the  young  animal  what  it  is 
in  the  old.  Reason  is  capable  of  an  enlargement  which 
has  no  known  boundaries,  and  requires  age  and  expe- 
rience for  its  development,  and  differs  in  the  extent  of 
its  researches  and  the  justness  of  its  conclusions  in 
different  ages  and  among  different  generations.  Instinct 
cannot  be  educated;  it  admits  of  no  enlargement — is 
benefited  by  no  training  or  example.  The  bird  of  pas- 
sage, taken  from  the  nest,  separated  from  its  kind,  when 
feathered  and  at  Hberty,  takes  its  flight,  in  its  appointed 
time,  through  the  "  vast  illimitable  air,"  without  guide  or 
director,  without  compass  or  chart,  over  seas  and  con- 
tinents, to  its  appointed  place.  The  young  Raven  will 
build  the  mechanical  nest  peculiar  to  its  kind  without 
instruction  or  example.  But  Education  is  absolutely 
essential  to  reason.  Without  instruction,  guidance,  and 
example,  there  is  and  can  be  no  development  of  its 
powers.  The  inventive  faculty  which  characterizes  rea- 
son is  wanting  in  instinct.  Whatever  has  been  instanced 
in  animals  as  resembling  reason,  may  in  general  be  re- 
ferred to  their  imitative  powers;  and  there  is,  in  the 
most  sagacious  of  the  irrational  tribes,  but  the  shadow 
of  those  high  faculties  which  distinguishes  man,  as  made 
in  the  image  of  God. 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIQION.  l73 

It  may  be  said  that  the  capacity  of  Education  dis- 
tinguishes man  from  all  the  inferior  orders  of  being. 
The  powers  conferred  on  him  by  his  Creator,  can  only 
be  developed  by  instruction.  The  soul,  without  know- 
ledge, is  what  the  natural  universe  would  be  without 
light ;  or  like  gold  concealed  in  the  earth,  or  un wrought 
from  the  alloy,  with  which  it  is  mixed,  in  the  mine. 
That  Education  is  the  cause  of  the  superiority  of  one 
race  or  one  generation  over  another,  is  manifest  from  the 
ascertained  capability  of  elevation  which  has  been  de- 
monstrated in  respect  to  the  most  debased  and  degraded 
of  those  who  bear  the  impress  of  our  common  humanity. 
Education,  in  its  large  and  comprehensive  sense,  marks 
the  diversity  in  the  moral  states  of  men,  from  the  most 
abject  Heathenism  to  the  highest  Christian  civilization. 
It  is  the  mission  of  Christianity  to  disciple,  teach,  or  edu- 
cate all  nations.  To  go  into  all  the  world  and  instruct 
all  men,  was  the  final  injunction  of  the  Saviour  to  his 
disciples.  This  Divine  knowledge  has  ever  been  the  sole 
basis  of  the  elevation  of  the  Heathen.  No  barbarous 
people  have  ever  received  the  arts  of  ci\ilized  life  or  our 
philosophy,  science,  and  laws,  who  have  not  first  been 
educated  in  our  Christianity.  This  proves  that  the  de- 
based condition  of  the  Pagan  world  is  the  result  of  moral 
causes,  of  false  systems  of  religion  and  ethics,  which  must 
be  overthrown,  before  civilization,  science,  and  the  arts, 
can  be  introduced.     It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 


174  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

any  original  superiority  of  races,  on  the  one  hand,  or  natu- 
ral inferiority  of  intellect,  on  the  other,  has  occasioned  the 
existing  diversity  in  the  conditions  of  mankind.  There  is 
no  physical  or  moral  debasement  among  men  which  does 
not  readily  yield  to  Education,  giving  to  this  term  its 
widest  scope.  The  degradation  of  ages  disappears  before 
the  simple  process  of  Christian  teaching.  Children  taken 
from  the  bosom  of  Paganism  and  educated  in  our  own 
country  in  Christian  families,  have  developed  like  others 
in  the  same  family,  and  have  sometimes  exhibited 
superior  mental  and  moral  powers.  The  cases  of  the 
celebrated  Sampson  Occom,  one  of  the  Aborigines  of  our 
own  continent,  and  that  of  Phillis  Wheatly,  brought  from 
the  coast  of  Guinea,  at  the  age  of  nine  years,  and  educated 
in  Boston,  are  in  point.  An  inconceivable  amount  of  non- 
sense on  the  subject  of  races  and  the  natural  inferiority 
of  one  to  another,  is  every  year  uttered  and  published 
without  contradiction.  Yet  a  single  example  of  a  Hea- 
then child  from  the  coast  of  Africa,  developing  all  the 
powers  and  qualities  which  characterize  the  most  gifted 
among  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  is  a  perfect  refutation  of 
all  the  idle  philosophies  which,  on  this  subject  of  races, 
are  full  of  "  great  swelling  words  of  vanity."  With  the 
cause  that  produces  debasement  and  barbarism,  the 
effect  will  cease.  The  unity  of  the  human  family,  their 
common  descent  and  common  natural  gifts,  will  be  mani- 
fest when  the  same  education  of  the  heart  and  the  intel- 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  l75 

lect  shall  become  universal.  When  the  light  of  the 
Grospel  shall  shine  in  every  habitation  of  cruelty,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  shall  the  wilderness  aijd  the  solitary 
place  be  glad  for  them,  and  the  desert  blossom  as  the 
rose;  then,  joy  and  gladness  shall  be  found  therein; 
**  thanksgiving  and  the  voice  of  melody."  Nor  will  the 
statement  of  the  significant  fact  be  out  of  place  in  this 
connection,  that  the  elevation  of  the  uneducated  and  de- 
graded in  masses  and  nations,  has  only  been  sought  on 
moral  grounds,  by  moral  means  and  among  Christian 
men.  Whence  orig'mated  the  idea  of  universal  edu- 
cation? Who  opened  the  doors  of  knowledge  to  the 
poor?  Who  have  sought  to  carry  the  light  of  science 
with  a  true  philosophy  and  the  blessings  of  civilization, 
to  the  ignorant,  the  degraded,  and  the  down-trodden 
nations  of  the  earth?  Has  infidelity  moved  in  this 
matter?  Have  the  scientific  combined  to  effect  this 
object?  Have  the  philosophers,  so  called,  subscribed 
money,  or  built  ships,  or  furnished  men,  to  dispel  the 
darkness  of  centuries?  Alas,  no  !  Whatever  Education 
in  the  arts  and  sciences,  in  civilization  and  philosophy,  the 
benighted  tribes  of  earth  are  receiving,  is  from  the  efforts 
of  the  Christian  church.  The  work  is  prosecuted  by 
Christian  men  and  women,  who,  with  their  lives  in  their 
hands,  have  gone  forth  to  proclaim  the  Everlasting  Gospel 
in  the  islands  of  the  sea  and  in  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
But  let  us  look  at  this  subject  a  little  more  closely,  and 


l76  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

see  if  we  do  not  discover  in  the  very  constitution  of  man, 
the  necessity  of  the  union  of  learning  and  religion  in  any 
system  of  sound  Education;  let  us  mark  in  him  that 
which  is  the  proper  subject  and  object  of  Education,  and 
then  decide  whether  morals  can  safely  be  divorced  from 
science,  and  whether  it  is  possible,  in  any  system  of  in- 
struction, to  leave  out  the  element  of  religious  faith  ? 

No  one,  unless  an  Atheist,  will  deny  that  man  is  a 
moral  being;  or,  in  other  words,  that  he  is  the  proper 
subject  of  law  and  government;  that  he  has  duties  to 
discharge  and  obligations  to  fulfill.  By  the  constitution 
of  his  nature,  he  is  compelled  to  make  moral  distinctions ; 
by  the  faculty  of  conscience,  he  is  constrained  to  judge 
his  own  conduct,  and  to  acquit  or  condemn  himself  In 
the  relations  of  parents  and  children,  of  husbands  and 
wives,  of  governments  and  subjects,  of  citizens  and 
neighbors,  there  are  a  thousand  duties  to  be  performed 
which  are  connected  with  the  welfare  of  society,  families, 
and  individuals.  The  acquisition  of  knowledge  is  of  no 
value  to  him  who  does  not  discharge  the  appropriate 
duties  of  life,  and  is  an  injury  to  community,  because  it 
puts  arms  into  the  hands  of  an  enemy.  Knowledge,  hke 
wealth,  is  simply  an  element  of  power;  its  possession 
does  not  necessarily  imply  either  wisdom  or  virtue. 
Knowledge  is  increased  power,  to  do  good  or  evil.  Not- 
withstanding this  obvious  truth,  it  still  continues  a  popu- 
lar fallacy,  of  which  it  seems  almost  impossible  to  dis- 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  l77 

abuse  the  public  mind,  that  there  is  some  mysterious 
tendency  in  mere  intellectual  training  towards  virtue 
and  goodness,  in  the  absence  of  any  education  of  the 
moral  nature.  Now,  this  is  contrary  both  to  reason  and 
experience.  What  tendency  exists  in  the  knowledge  that 
the  sum  of  the  squares  of  the  two  legs  in  a  right-angled 
triangle,  is  equal  to  the  square  of  the  hypothenuse,  to 
make  a  man  deny  himself  his  lusts,  his  pride,  his  pas- 
sions ?  How  does  the  knowledge  that  water  is  composed 
of  hydrogen  and  oxygen  gases,  influence  him  to  be  an 
obedient  child,  a  virtuous  man,  or  a  good  citizen  ?  The 
angels  who  kept  not  their  first  estate,  were  not  inferior 
in  knowledge  to  those  who  remained  steadfast  in  their 
allegiance.  It  was  the  "  Covering  Cherub  that  sat  amid 
the  stones  of  fire,"  who  drew  away  that  third  part  of 
heaven,  "  who  left  their  own  habitation  and  are  reserved 
in  chains  of  darkness  unto  the  judgment  of  the  great 
day."  Among  the  philosophers  and  moralists  of  the 
ancients,  who  were  without  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
faith,  without  the  purifying  influence  of  the  Gospel,  per- 
sonal purity  was  rare;  the  feeble  restraints  of  Poly- 
theism continued  to  exert  an  influence  among  the  com- 
mon people — the  "  profanum  vulgus"  of  the  Latin  Poet, 
long  after  the  demoralization  of  the  more  intellectual 
classes,  who,  ceasmg  to  reverence  the  gods,  had  come 
to  mock  at  the  obligations  of  religion  and  morality. 
Education,  civilization,  and  refinement,jf^i^Betia^js^jxf 
8 


^'^  Of  thm"^^ 


178 


THE    CONNECTION    OF 


the  knowledge  of  God,  and  the  revelation  of  his  will, 
while  they  led  to  the  detection  of  the  fables  of  Poly- 
theism, gave  them  nothing  in  its  place,  and  served  to 
corrupt  the  public  morals,  and  to  hasten  the  decay  of 
the  State.  Should  it  be  said,  that  with  us,  educated 
men  as  a  class,  are  morally  superior  to  others,  it  may 
be  replied,  that  the  proposed  divorce  between  religion 
and  learning  has  not  yet  been  accomplished — the  sepa- 
ration is  no  where  so  complete  as  to  exhibit  its  inevi- 
table results.  A  generation,  at  least,  must  pass  away, 
before  the  absolute  inefficiency  of  mere  intellectual  train- 
ino'  to  the  formation  of  moral  character  can  be  demon- 

o 

strated  in  our  experience — before  the  popular  fallacy 
which  now  bewilders  the  community,  will  have  worked 
out  its  mischievous  consequences. 

The  fact  which  must  be  conceded,  that  man  possesses 
a  moral  as  well  as  an  intellectual  nature,  proves  that  both 
should  be  educated.  If  either  is  neglected,  it  should 
be  the  latter,  because  the  proper  performance  of  moral 
duties  is  of  far  higher  moment  than  the  mere  possession 
of  knowledge,  whether  we  consider  the  interests  of  society 
and  government  or  of  the  individual.  The  discharge  of 
the  various  duties  of  life,  is  a  matter  of  almost  infinitely 
more  importance  than  the  exhibition  of  intellectual  culti- 
vation. Of  what  consequence  is  it  that  a  man  should  be 
able  to  measure  the  distance  of  the  earth  from  the  sun — 
that  he  should  know  all  the  powers  and  qualities  of  mat- 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  l79 

ter, — if  his  passions  are  unsubdued — if  his  heart  is  un- 
reformed — if  his  principles  are  corrupt?  What  parent 
would  consider  any  amount  of  knowledge  a  compensation 
for  the  depraved  character  of  his  child  ?  If  his  son  was 
a  liar  and  a  cheat,  his  possession  of  all  the  knowledge  in 
the  world,  would  fail  to  satisfy  or  reconcile  the  unhappy 
father.  What  husband  would  overlook  the  infidelity  of 
his  wife,  on  account  of  her  accomplishments?  What 
Government  would  be  content  to  have  Philosophers, 
Mathematicians,  Geologists,  and  Chemists,  instead  of  good 
citizens,  and  subjects,  obedient  to  the  Laws  ? 

The  education  then  of  the  moral  nature  of  man  is  not 
only  necessary,  but  it  is  the  GRAND  NECESSITY. 
This  is  still  more  obvious  when  we  consider  the  corrup- 
tion of  his  moral  nature,  an  element  which  enters  largely 
into  this  question,  and  the  neglect  of  which,  says  an  emi- 
nent historian,  has  been  the  great  mistake  of  all  theorists 
in  government,  and,  we  may  add,  the  capital  error  of 
almost  all  modem  systems  of  Education.  But  with- 
out entering  at  this  time  upon  Ae  Scriptural  doctrine  of 
the  corruption  of  the  moral  nature  of  man,  it  is  enough  to 
say,  that  the  admission  that  he  is  a  moral  and  account- 
able being,  establishes  the  necessity  of  a  religious  edu- 
cation. For  if  the  intellect  runs  to  waste  without 
education,  much  more  the  moral  nature,  which,  like  the 
earth  without  cultivation,  will  only  yield  "tiioms  and 
thistles." 


180  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

But  the  objector,  granting  the  general  position  which 
lie  cannot  well  deny,  will  still  contend  that  a  man  may- 
be educated  for  the  performance  of  his  moral  duties 
without  the  element  of  religious  faith.  He  argues  that 
morals  may  be  taught  when  there  is  no  system  of  reli- 
gion— that  the  performance  of  social  and  relative  duties 
may  be  enjoined  and  secured  without  theological  instruc- 
tion. A  proposition  more  utterly  destitute  of  truth  was 
never  in  any  place  or  at  any  time  enounced,  yet  repeated 
so  often,  that  multitudes  believe  it  to  be  an  axiom.  Re- 
ligion and  morality  can  be  no  more  divorced  than  cause 
and  effect  The  religious  principle  is  the  ground  of  all 
moral  obligation,  and  it  would  be  as  easy  to  erect  a 
building  without  a  foundation,  as  to  sustain  a  system  of 
morals  without  the  basis  of  religious  faith. 

"  Law,"  says  Blackstone,  "  is  a  rule  of  right  action, 
prescribed  by  a  superior  powerJ^  With  the  acknow- 
ledgment or  denial  of  the  being  and  government  of  a 
Supreme  Power,  stand  or  fall  the  sanctions  which  en- 
force the  duties  enjoined"  by  every  code  of  ethics.  With- 
out this,  all  law  is  despotism,  all  government  tyranny. 
Hobbes'  theory  of  a  conventional  morality  is  an  ab- 
surdity. Without  the  recognition  of  a  Supreme  Law,  the 
judgment  or  legislation  of  a  majority  in  any  community, 
is  no  more  binding  than  are  the  fallible,  private  opinions  of 
tlie  individuals  of  which  it  is  composed.  Without 
the  sanctions  of  religion,  morahty  is  a  mere  name,  an  ex- 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  181 

pression  of  human  and  uncertain  opinions,  which  is  without 
authority,  leaving  every  man  to  consult  only  his  own  de- 
sires. The  notion  that  Grovemment  is  a  compact,  in  which 
the  subject  surrenders  certain  natural  rights  in  order  to 
secure  the  protection  of  law,  has  no  foundation  in  form  or 
fact  Every  man  comes  into  the  world  the  subject  of 
law  and  government  The  consent  of  the  citizen  to  this 
imaginary  compact  is  never  asked  or  given.  Whether  it 
be  a  Despotism,  or  a  Hmited  Monarchy,  a  Republic,  an 
Aristocracy,  or  a  Democracy,  the  principle  is  the  same. 
Every  one  bom  in  the  territory  owes  allegiance  to  the 
government  We  do  not  deny  the  right  in  the  body  of 
subjects  to  change  the  mode  of  government,  for  this  is 
not  essential  to  its  existence,  but  the  fact  of  government 
and  its  incidents,  among  which  is  the  natural  allegiance 
of  the  subject,  is  not  an  affair  of  choice,  consent,  or 
change.  Government  is  a  divine  constitution,  deriving 
its  general  powers  from  the  authority  of  God,  though 
subject,  as  to  its  Twocfe,  to  the  will  of  the  people.  This  is 
strikingly  illustrated  in  the  change  of  the  free  form  of 
the  Hebrew  commonwealth,  by  the  demand  of  the  peo- 
ple for  a  king,  who  was  given  them  with  a  Divine  intima- 
tion, that  their  choice,  though  a  bad  one,  was  allowed. 
This  resulted  in  no  substantial  alterations  either  in 
the  civil  or  religious  laws  of  the  Hebrews;  and  the 
fact  may  be  noticed  in  regard  to  all  revolutions,  that 
they   are  accomplished    in    general    without    material 


182  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

changes  in  the  statutes  which  protect  the  rights  of 
persons  or  property.  A  Repubhc  may  take  the  place  of 
a  despotism  without  any  change  of  organic  law;  it  is|but 
a  better  administration  of  the  great  principles  recognized 
by  all  governments,  but  hable  to  be  perverted  and 
abused  by  an  arbitrary  and  irresponsible  executive.  As 
governments  are  ordained  of  God,  and  men  are  subject 
to  them,  independently  of  any  choice  or  consent  on  their 
part,  so  they  are  the  subjects  of  moral  law;  and  all  ques- 
tions of  duty  as  connected  with  society  and  government, 
are  referable  ultimately  to  the  Law  of  God.  The  exist- 
ence and  authority  of  the  Supreme  Governor  are  the 
bases  upon  which  rest  both  the  fact  and  the  character  of 
moral  obligation.  Hence  the  idea  of  teaching  morahty 
without  religion  is  an  absurdity. 

But  it  will  be  urged  that  the  being  and  government 
of  God  may  be  made  the  basis  of  a  Moral  Education, 
without  the  recognition  of  any  system  of  rehgion.  But 
how  religious  instruction  can  be  communicated  except 
upon  some  received  system,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  conceive* 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  rehgious  teaching,  whether  true 
or  false,  is  conveyed  upon  the  basis  of  some  well  known 
theology,  as  Mohammedanism,  the  various  systems  of 
Polytheism,  or  Christianity.  A  vast  majority  of  our  popu- 
lation beheve  that  God,  his  attributes  and  government, 
are  only  fully  and  truly  revealed  in  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures.    The  world  is  full  of  evidence  that  men  by  nature 


SCIENCE   AND    RELIGION.  183 

"know  not  God;"  and  though  "the  invisible  things"  of 
him  are  seen  by  the  things  that  are  made,  "even  his 
eternal  power  and  Godhead,"  yet  this  alone  does  not 
prevent  men  from  "  worshiping  and  serving  the  creature 
more  than  the  Creator;"  without  a  revelation  of  his  will 
^*  they  become  vain  in  their  imaginations,  and  their  foolish 
heart  is  darkened."  What  Reason,  unaided  by  Reve- 
lation, can  do,  has  been  tested  by  sixty  centuries  of  ex- 
perience by  untold  numbers  of  oiu*  race,  of  whom  six 
hundred  millions  are  living  witnesses.  There  can  be  no 
answer  to  such  demonstrations ;  Paganism,  with  its  re- 
sults, is  a  perfect  and  perpetual  answer  to  all  the  argu- 
ments for  natxiral  religion.  No  man  can  be  foolish 
enough  to  imagine  that,  bom  and  nurtured  under  the 
influence  of  Polytheism,  he  would  have  been  any  thing 
better  than  a  stupid  idolater. 

But  a  practical  objection,  apparently  of  a  formidable 
character,  is  urged  against  a  strictly  Christian  Education. 
It  is  demanded  what  form  of  Christianity  shall  be 
adopted  as  the  ground  of  instruction  among  the  various 
sects  who  own  the  Christian  naame.  Under  our  plan  of 
government^  and  with  our  poUtical  institutions,  how  can 
our  public  schools  be  placed  upon  any  foundation  of 
Christian  faith  ?  In  reply,  we  remark,  in  the  first  place, 
that  all  our  higher  Seminaries  of  learning  are  now,  and 
always  have  been  denominational — or,  to  use  the  very 
term  in  which  the  objector  rejoices,  sectarian.     No  im- 


184  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

portant  College  or  Uniyersity  in  this  country  has  ever 
been  sustained  on  any  other  principle.  Institutions 
founded  on  the  latitudinarian  plan  contended  for,  have 
either  failed  altogether  or  have  been  compelled  to  adopt 
a  religious  basis.  Even  where  the  strictly  reUgious  cha- 
racter of  a  College  has  been  modified  by  a  departure 
from  the  orthodox  faith,  as  in  the  case  of  Harvard,  its 
sectarian  character  has  continued  unchanged.  Cam- 
bridge is  as  decidedly  Socinian  in  its  character  as  it  was 
formerly  Orthodox.  The  endowments  of  the  pious 
Harvard  and  his  associates  have  been  grossly  perverted ; 
the  gospel  proclaimed  there  is  another  gospel  than  that 
which  they  received.  But  Unitarianism  is  called  by  its 
adherents  a  system  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  is  at  least 
as  sectarian  as  any  other.  The  collegiate  institutions  which 
have  succeeded  in  the  United  States,  have  been  founded 
by  the  piety  of  individuals  or  the  endowments  of 
churches,  and  are  under  ecclesiastical  supervision.  Al- 
most every  important  College  in  this  country  is,  in  fact 
and  form,  an  Episcopal,  Methodist,  Baptist,  or  Presby- 
terian institution.  The  State  has  occasionally  aided 
the  various  Seminaries  founded  and  endowed  by  the 
church — distributing  her  aid  among  the  various  denomi- 
nations of  Christians.  No  practical  evil  has  in  any  way 
resulted.  The  government  has  been  committed  to  no- 
thing but  the  cause  of  Education.  The  people  have  sent 
their  sons  to  be  educated  in  accordance  with  their  reli- 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  186 

gious  or  other  preferences,  while  a  sound  and  decided 
Christian  influence  has  in  general  pervaded  all  our  higher 
institutions  of  learning.  Christianity  has  not  merely  been 
tolerated  but  taught,  and  thousands  of  students  have 
received  their  first  decided  religious  impressions  at  the 
college  where  they  have  graduated.  A  system  that 
has  been  found  so  important  to  the  success,  if  not 
essential  to  the  existence,  of  the  higher  schools,  might, 
by  parity  of  reasoning,  be  presumed  to  be  the  best 
in  all  cases;  but  the  State  having  assumed  the  work 
of  Education  in  the  primary  schools,  it  is  contended  that 
no  religious  system  can  be  introduced  in  this  department 
We  concede  the  existence  of  this  difficulty,  and  have 
only  to  reply,  that  we  do  not  admit  the  right  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  assume  to  educate  the  children  of  the  citizen. 
Except  in  cases  where  the  parent  is  incapacitated  from 
performing  the  duty  which  God  has  committed  to  him, 
the  assumption  is  an  infringement  upon  his  personal, 
political  and  religious  liberty.  What  right  has  the 
Government  to  undertake  the  education  of  the  children 
of  those  who  are  able  and  willing  to  train  up  their  own 
households?  Was  government  in  this  free  country 
established  with  reference  to  such  an  object?  May 
not  the  State  as  well  attempt  to  dictate  one  faith  as  to  as- 
sume the  office  of  instruction,  which  implies  the  foiming 
of  the  faith  and  morals  as  well  as  the  cultivation  of  the 
intellect  ?  What  an  engine  of  oppression  and  corruption 
8* 


186  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

such  a  system  might  become  in  the  hands  of  ambitious 
and  designing  men  in  the  administration  of  the  Govern- 
ment? How  long  will  it  be  before  the  State,  having 
furnished  at  a  vast  expense  all  the  facilities  of  primary- 
education,  will  pass  a  law  enforcing  the  attendance  of 
all  the  children  ?  IS'o  right  is  more  sacred  than  that  of 
the  parent  to  educate  his  own  children  in  his  own  way. 
No  duty  is  more  strictly  enjoined  upon  the  Christian 
father  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  than  that  he  should 
"  bring  up  his  children  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of 
the  Lord."  It  will  do  for  despotic  governments,  who 
have  a  religion  estabUshed  by  law,  to  assume  the  office 
of  Education ;  but  for  a  Free  Government,  tolerating  all 
forms  of  faith,  and  sustaining  none,  to  do  this,  is  an  at- 
tempt upon  the  liberty  of  the  citizen,  and  a  public,  open, 
avowed  dissociation  of  religion  and  learning,  of  morals 
and  education — things  which  God  hath  joined,  and 
which  it  is  both  impious  and  ruinous  to  put  asunder. 
It  is  indeed  contended  that  some  kind  of  religious  in- 
struction is  conveyed,  some  general  or  common  Chris- 
tianity taught,  in  our  common  schools.  But  how  this 
can  be  honestly  done,  in  view  of  those  rights  of  con- 
science with  which  the  State  is  pledged  not  to  interfere, 
is  not  seen.  The  Jew  rejects  the  New  Testament,  and 
is  offended  if  his  children  are  instructed  out  of  it;  the 
Roman  Catholic  prohibits  the  reading  of  either  the  Old 
or  New  Testament;  the  Quaker  objects  to  prayer;  the 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  187 

Socinian  objects  to  the  doctrine  of  human  depravity  and 
a  vicarious  atonement  for  human  redemption ;  the  Uni- 
versalist  denies  the  doctrine  of  a  future  judgment  and 
"perdition  of  ungodly  men."  When  we  have  gone 
through  with  the  catalogue  of  opinions  from  all  quarters, 
what  common  Christianity  have  we  left?  More  than 
this,  what  common  principles  of  Christian  morality  re- 
main untouched  in  the  vast  array  of  objections  from 
Jews,  Deists,  and  Atheists,  as  well  as  from  those  who 
profess  to  receive  the  Gospel  as  a  Revelation  from  God  ? 
The  Government  cannot  establish  a  school  and  sufler 
any  religious  or  moral  principles  to  be  taught  there 
without  infringing  upon  some  person's  rights  of  con- 
science. From  the  necessity  of  the  case,  the  State  may 
provide  for  the  education  of  the  poor  and  destitute ;  but 
beyond  this  she  passes  her  legitimate  office.  The  funds 
devoted  to  Education  should  be  distributed  among  pri- 
mary schools,  on  the  same  principle  that  colleges  and 
academies  are  now  aided,  and  communities,  and  churches, 
or  individuals,  found  and  regulate  and  govern  the  lower, 
as  they  now  do  the  higher  institutions  of  learning. 

In  the  rural  districts,  two  things  have,  in  past  time, 
modified  the  evils  of  the  system,  under  the  old  law. 
Where  the  population  was  homogeneous  in  a  school  dis- 
trict, they  were  enabled  to  manage  their  affairs  in  their 
own  way,  and  in  a  religious  community  the  school  had  a 
religious  character.     Thirty  jrears  since,  the  writer  of 


188  THE    CONNECTION   OF 

this  Address,  was  taught  the  Assembly's  Catechism  in 
one  of  the  common  schools  of  this  State.  Again — the 
equality  in  the  condition  of  the  people  in  the  rural  pa- 
rishes, prevented,  and  still  prevents,  the  monstrous  evils 
which  attend  the  free  school  system  in  our  cities  and 
populous  towns.  The  commingling  of  the  children  of  all 
classes  is  the  avowed  object  of  the  present  free  school 
system.  The  fusion  of  society  which  Socialism  and 
Fourierism  are  attempting  in  regard  to  adults,  is  sought 
to  be  accomplished  in  respect  to  children  in  the  State 
Schools,  where  the  experiment  is  far  more  dangerous 
from  the  unformed  habits  and  character  of  the  juvenile 
population.  It  will  not  be  denied  that  there  are  multi- 
tudes of  children  in  our  large  cities,  and  more  or  less 
in  every  district  of  every  populous  town,  who  are  trained 
in  the  haunts  of  vice — pigmies  in  size,  but  giants  in  sin, 
who  have  imbibed  their  knowledge  of  evil  \^  ith  the  first 
utterance  of  language,  and  with  whom  blasphemy  and 
obscenity  are  household  words.  These  children,  upon 
our  free  school  system,  are  introduced  to  the  com- 
panionship of  others  carefully  and  religiously  trained,  upon 
whom  such  an  influence  must,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  be  most  deplorable.  It  is  in  city  schools  also  that 
all  attempts  of  judicious  and  pious  teachers  to  introduce 
prayer  or  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  are  most  jea- 
lously watched  and  promptly  resisted.  What  a  system  is 
this  for  the  education  of  immortal  souls  !    Without  God, 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  189 

without  Christianity,  without  prayer,  and,  worse  than  all, 
introducing  among  the  comparatively  pui-e  and  virtuous, 
the  precocious  vagrants  who  have  been  trained  in  the 
purlieus  of  crime,  in  the  very  sinks  of  the  pit,  whose 
breath  is  contagion,  and  whose  presence  brings  a  moral 
pestilence  into  a  crowded  congregation  of  young  children, 
who  have  been  before  kept  from  the  knowledge  of  sin, 
but  among  whom  it  now  comes  as  when  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden  the  Arch-tempter  poisoned  the  ear  of  Eve. 
That  the  depraved  and  abandoned  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation demand  attention,  is  not  denied;  but  that  they 
should  be  allowed  to  mingle,  as  adults  or  children,  in  the 
society  of  those  comparatively  innocent,  is  an  out- 
rage upon  common  sense  and  common  morality.  Be- 
sides, it  is  not  possible  to  reduce  society  to  the  dead 
level  of  Socialism ;  and  if  it  were  possible,  it  is  not  de- 
sirable. A  dreary  and  stagnant  marsh  would  be  the  re- 
sult of  leveling  all  those  inequalities  of  condition  which 
occur  from  the  ordinations  of  the  Divine  Providence,  or 
from  the  diversity  in  intellect,  character,  and  habits, 
which  exist  among  men. 

It  is  high  time  that  the  truth  was  spoken  on  this  sub- 
ject, at  whatever  risk  of  odium  or  abuse  from  men  who 
are  engaged  in  perpetual  jubilations  over  the  free  school 
system.  Those  who  bestow  or  enjoy  the  patronage  of 
the  plan,  are  of  course  pledged  to  it,  and  may  be 
expected  to  cry  out  with  the  silver  shrine-makers  of 


190  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

Ephesus,  who,  when  their  gains  were  endangered  by  an 
Apostle,  cried  out,  "  about  the  space  of  two  hours,  *  Great 
is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians.'  "  It  is  time,  if  possible,  to 
convince  those  sincere  but  mistaken  men  of  their  error, 
who  think  that  when  they  have  taxed  themselves  and 
their  neighbors  to  build  costly  edifices  and  secure 
teachers  of  more  than  ordinary  attainments,  and  when 
the}'-  have  gathered  together  in  one  place  all  the  children 
of  the  different  wards  or  districts,  however  diverse  in 
character,  station,  or  habits — they  have  done  the  work, 
and  are  entitled  to  be  considered  the  benefactors  of  man- 
kind. Do  such  men  suppose  that,  by  fusing  the  mass 
together,  the  pure  metal  will  destroy  the  alloy,  instead 
of  being  corrupted  by  it?  This  is  contrary  to  all  the 
conclusions  of  reason,  revelation,  and  experience.  It  is 
said  that  sectarianism  will  be  destroyed  by  this  process 
of  instruction.  This  is  probable ;  for  the  system  tends 
to  the  destruction  of  all  rehgion;  and  if  this  end  is  ac- 
complished, the  desired  consequence  is  sure  to  follow, 
and  we  shall  soon  be  as  Httle  sectarian  as  the  French 
population  during  the  reign  of  terror. 

We  contend  that  the  primary  schools  should  be  on 
the  same  foundation  as  the  higher — that  every  religious 
denomination  should  establish  and  sustain  schools  of 
their  own.  The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  have  repeatedly  urged  the  establishment  of  Pa- 
rochial Schools  upon  their  congregations.     The  Episcopal 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  191 

Church  is  said  to  have  always  defended  this  principle, 
and  some  of  her  ablest  Bishops  have  recently  urged  this 
subject  upon  the  attention  of  their  Dioceses.  It  would 
seem  to  be  a  clear  proposition,  about  which  Christians 
could  not  disagree,  that  every  believing  parent  is  bound 
to  give  his  children  a  strictly  and  thoroughly  religious 
Education.  To  talk  about  educating  a  child  religiously 
at  home  and  intellectually  at  school,  is  the  most  trans- 
parent sophistry ;  it  is  to  do  in  one  place  what  is  imme- 
diately undone  at  another.  Besides,  the  Christian  pa- 
rent is  bound  as  much  to  secure  the  religious  training  of 
his  children  at  school  as  at  home ;  the  principle  is  the 
same.  It  is  an  old  legal  maxim,  that  what  a  man  does 
by  another  he  does  by  himself,  and  every  teacher  stands 
in  loco  parentis,  by  the  election  of  the  parent.  «  Grod  has 
committed  the  education  of  the  child  to  the  parent,  and 
not  to  the  State,  and  every  Christian  is  bound  to  educate 
his  child  in  those  views  of  the  Gospel  which  he  himself 
conscientiously  receives,  at  least  substantially;  for  the 
agreement  in  the  views  of  the  evangelical  denominations 
is  such  as  to  imply  no  inconsistency  in  their  patronage 
of  each  other's  institutions. 

In  endeavoring  to  apply  the  principles  which  were 
stated  in  the  former  part  of  this  Lecture,  to  the  primary  as 
well  as  the  higher  schools,  no  disparagement  has  been  in- 
tended of  the  officers  or  teachers  of  the  free  schools.  Our 
controversy  is  not  with  them,  but  with  the  system.    How- 


192  THE    CONNECTION    OF 

ever  capable  or  faithful  they  may  be,  however  desirous 
to  communicate  religious  instruction,  it  is  evident  that 
their  hands  are  tied,  and  that  when  they  do  their  duty 
in  this  department,  they  violate  both  the  letter  and  spirit 
of  the  system,  under  which  they  are  engaged. 

It  is  important  not  only  that  the  principles  should  be 
stated  on  which  the  inseparable  union  of  learning  and 
religion  is  based,  but  that  they  be  applied  faithfully,  at 
whatever  hazard  of  misconstruction.  It  has  become  a 
solemn  duty,  however  difficult,  to  expose  popular  fal- 
lacies, and  to  press  upon  Christians  the  duty  of  training 
their  children  in  their  own  faith.  The  education  of  the 
masses  was  first  taught  by  Christianity.  The  ancients 
had  not  the  most  distant  conception  of  it,  either  as  a 
duty  or  a  necessity.  The  Church  first  assumed  this 
office,  and  the  unhappy  union  of  Church  and  State  in 
the  old  world  first  introduced  the  action  of  governments 
in  a  matter  where,  as  lawyers  say,  they  had  no  original 
jurisdiction.  In  this  country,  where  this  unfortunate 
union  does  not  exist,  the  attempt  of  the  State  to  assume 
the  office  of  Education  is  vastly  more  mischievous;  for 
no  religion  in  form  or  fact,  is,  or  can  be,  connected  with 
her  schools,  and  Christianity  is  threatened  with  destruc- 
tion by  her  own  ofispring. 

That  this  Seminary,  the  opening  of  which  has  con- 
vened us  to-day,  may  meet  the  expectations  of  all  evan- 
gelical Christians — that  it  may  prove  a  blessmg  to  this 


SCIENCE    AND    RELIGION.  193 

community  and  to  tlie  church  which  has  it  particularly  in 
charge — that  pure  and  healthful  influences,  Uke  waters 
from  the  river  of  God,  may  go  forth  from  it  to  fertilize 
and  refresh  our  moral  wastes — ^is  the  desire  and  prayer 
of  those  who  have  it  in  charge,  and  of  the  members  of 
the  Synod  under  whose  supervision  its  affairs  are  hence- 
forth to  be  administered. 


LECTURE   VII. 


THE     SUPERNATURAL 
ELEMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY* 


In  the  nineteenth  century  the  grand  hindrance  to  the 
Gospel  is  to  be  found  in  the  perversion,  obscuration  or 
open  denial  of  the  Supernatural  Element  of  Christianity. 
The  philosophy  of  Locke  and  his  followers,  and  of  Hobbes 
and  Bentham,  who  have  superadded  the  utilitarian 
scheme  to  the  materialism  of  the  former,  are  thought  by 
their  admirers,  to  have  dischanted  the  universe  of  the 
spiritual  and  supernatural.  There  is  no  longer  a  "di- 
vinity which  stirs  within  us,"  or  without  us.  The  innate 
and  ideal  are  consigned  to  the  tomb  of  the  Capulets ; 
and  the  mine  and  the  cotton  factory  are  the  divinities  of 
mountain  and  rivulet  Of  the  effect  upon  the  fine  arts, 
this  is  not  the  time  or  place  to  speak ;  it  is  enough  to  say 
that  this  philosophy  is  more  grossly  material  than  the 

*  Bztraet  ftom  a  Lecture  delivered  at  Hamilton  College 


196  THE    SUPERIfATURAL   ELEMENT 

polytheistic,  which,  though  it  could  not  elevate  man  re- 
ligiously, at  least  preserved  his  reverence  for  the  super- 
natural— his  conceptions  of  the  ideal — and  gave  to  the 
world  those  miracles  of  art — or,  to  use  the  words  of  one 
of  our  own  poets, 

"Those  forms  of  beauty  seen  no  more, 
Yet  once  to  art's  rapt  vision  given, 
Oh,  yet  the  enamored  Sun  delays. 
And  pries  through  fount  and  crumbling  fane, 
To  win  to  him  adoring  gaze. 
Those  children  of  tlie  sky  again!" 

,  While  we  have  rejected  the  falsehoods  and  supersti- 
tions of  Paganism,  we  seem  to  have  forgotten  the  clear 
revelation  in  the  Scriptures  of  Truth  of  the  existence  and 
delegated  providence  of  angels  over  the  destinies  of  men ; 
rejecting  the  error  of  the  heathen  world,  we  have  aban- 
doned the  fact  of  which  their  worship  of  demons  was 
but  the  perversion.  In  removing  the  "  wood,  hay  and 
stubble,"  we  have  sought  to  undermine  the  foundation 
upon  which  the  superstructure  of  error  rested,  and 
abhorrent  of  demi-gods,  we  either  neglect  or  deny  the 
truth,  "  that  He  maketh  his  angels  winds.  His  messengers 
a  flame  of  fire."  The  sentiment  which  Shakspeare  puts 
in  the  mouth  of  Hamlet — 

"  There  are  more  things  in  Heaven  and  Earth,  Horatio, 
Than  are  dreampt  of  in  our  philosophy," 

is  more  applicable  to  this,  than  to  the  age  of  Elizabeth ; 
for  to  our  philosophy  nothing  difficult  or  mysterious  re- 


OF    CHRISTIANITY.  197 

mams ;  all  things  are  known,  all  mysteries  are  fathomed ; 
the  material  universe  is  a  vast  engine  of  which  the  pro- 
pelling power  may  yet  be  called  God,  for  want  of  a 
better  term,  and  because  of  ancient  prejudices.  A  cal- 
culation of  physical  advantages,  and  how  much  can  be 
made  out  of  it,  is  the  philosophy  of  the  universe,  and  taste 
and  imagination,  the  ideal  and  the  beautiful,  are  sacri- 
ficed with  the  religious  sentiment,  upon  the  remorseless 
altars  of  Materialism.  Nor  is  the  degradation  of  our 
mental  philosophy  less  apparent.  The  soul  itself  has 
come  to  be  measured  and  mapped,  divided  and  subdi- 
vided— its  powers  and  faculties  identified  with  the  pro- 
tuberances of  the  brain,  subjected  to  a  physical  law  and 
an  organic  development  The  metaphysician  has  turned 
surveyor,  and  with  the  head  for  his  field,  and  his  fingers 
for  his  instruments,  he  ascertains  the  powers  and  facul- 
ties of  mind  in  general,  and  the  characteristics  of  each 
individual  The  modern  philosophy  has  buried  the  di- 
viner's rod — the  arts  of  magic  and  the  wonders  of  witch- 
craft— in  a  common  grave ;  but,  as  has  been  well  said, 
the  somnambulist  is  put  in  the  place  of  the  soothsayer. 
The  absurdity  is  nothing  if  it  be  not  predicated  of  super- 
natural powers,  and  nothing  is  incredible  if  it  can  be 
assumed  of  man  himself,  and  referred  to  a  physical  law. 
The  magnetic  slumber,  is  said  by  those  who  ridicule 
witchcraft,  to  give  to  man  the  ability  of  revealing  the 
past,  if  not  the  future — of  being  where  his  body  is  not — 


198  THE  SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENT 

of  vision  without  the  use  of  the  eye — of  discovering  and 
removing  diseases  which  baffle  the  skill  of  the  physician, 
so  that  powers  once  predicated  of  fallen  spirits  sink  into 
insignificance,  in  view  of  these  pretensions.  What  was 
once  attributed  to  the  agency  of  the  powers  of  darkness 
is  now  assumed  to  belong  to  the  natural,  but  recently 
discovered,  attributes  of  man  himself;  and  we  are  gravely 
told  of  laws  and  physical  conditions  developed  by  Ani- 
mal Magnetism,  which  enable  him  to  see  things  past, 
present,  and  to  come.  The  superstitions  of  past  ages 
were  but  the  excrescences  of  truth ;  and  of  the  extent  of 
the  agency  of  fallen  spirits  we  are  ignorant;  but  when 
man  clothes  himself  with  powers  evidently  supernatural, 
and  even  arrogates  the  possession  of  Divine  attributes  by 
a  physical  law,  there  is  an  end  of  sober  argument — 
human  arrogance  can  go  no  farther  than  to  assert,  or 
human  credulity  than  to  believe  such  claims.  The 
faith  in  witchcraft  and  demonology  of  barbarous  nations 
is  reputable,  compared  Avith  this  monstrous  conception  of 
our  times. 

Our  philosophy  explains  every  thing ;  it  knows  nothing 
of  the  wonderful  or  supernatural ;  it  professes  to  pene- 
trate the  secrets  of  nature,  and  in  its  theological  field  to 
declare  the  counsels  of  God.  It  answers  in  the  affirma- 
tive the  solemn  questions  proposed  by  Jehovah,  "  Hast 
thou  entered  into  the  springs  of  the  sea,  or  hast  thou 
walked  in  search  of   the  depth?     Have  the  gates  of 


OF   CHRISTIANITY.  199 

death  been  opened  to  thee,  or  hast  thou  seen  the  doors 
of  the  shadow  of  death  ?  Where  is  the  way  where  light 
dwelleth,  and  as  for  darkness,  where  is  the  place  thereof? 
Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
earth  ?  Declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding,"  But  none 
of  these  things  trouble  the  Materialist,  who  can  answer 
equally  well  the  question  proposed  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
"Knowest  thou  the  ordinances  of  Heaven?"  "Can 
man  by  searching  find  out  God  ?"  The  popular  theology 
of  the  day  is  deeply  infected  with  this  philosophy.  It 
proposes  to  solve  the  mystery  which  has  been  "  hid  for 
ages;"  undertakes  to  explain  the  things  in  the  Scriptures 
"  hard  to  be  understood ;"  offers  to  our  faith  the  positive 
demonstrations  of  science,  and  declares  the  moral  as 
well  as  the  material  universe  to  be  now  delivered  from 
the  supernatural  and  mystical ;  while  those  who  cannot 
run  to  the  same  excess  of  riot,  are  thought  to  be  behind 
the  intelligence  of  the  age,  and  yet  in  bondage  to  a 
bigoted  spirit  and  an  antiquated  faith.  Christianity  is 
presented  as  a  progressive  system,  capable  of  new  de- 
velopments, and  able  to  keep  pace  with  the  extraordinary 
advance  of  the  present  age,  and  containing  nothing  con- 
trary to  its  philosophy.  To  accomplish  this,  of  course, 
the  supeniatural  element  of  Christianity  must  be  dis- 
posed of;  and  though  to  the  German  Neology  and  its 
interpretations  of  Scripture,  the  leap  is  too  great  to  be 
taken  at  once,  yet  the  indications  of  relationship  are  too 
plain  to  be  mistaken. 


200         THE  SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENT 

But  what  is  the  tendency  of  this  growing  rationahsm 
upon  the  practical  Christianity  of  the  age,  and  the  influ- 
ence and  progress  of  the  Gospel  at  home  and  abroad? 
The  decay  of  religious  reverence  may  be  mentioned  as 
one  result.  Much  of  the  preaching  of  the  day  is  di- 
vested of  that  solemnity  in  manner  and  matter  which 
should  characterize  the  message  of  one  who  stands  be- 
tween the  living  and  the  dead,  as  an  Ambassador  for 
Christ,  to  proclaim  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come. 
The  doctrines  of  the  Bible  are  discussed  philosophically 
rather  than  scripturally.  With  a  text  too  often  taken  as 
a  mere  motto,  the  preacher  seeks  to  prove  his  position 
analogically,  or  by  divesting  his  doctrine  of  mystery,  or 
by  the  fitness  of  things,  and  by  frequent  appeals  to  the 
prejudices  rather  than  to  the  consciences  of  his  hearers. 
It  is  sometimes  deemed  the  highest  evidence  of  abihty  in 
the  preacher  to  successfully  contradict  his  text  in  his  ser- 
mon, and  to  show  that  its  true  meaning  is  absolutely  op- 
posed to  its  plain  and  obvious  signification.  It  has  not 
unfrequently  been  argued  from  the  pulpit  that  a  sound 
morahty  demands  a  particular  interpretation  of  certain 
passages  of  Scripture ;  and  certain  ultra  views  in  some 
of  the  reformations  of  the  day  have  been  based  upon 
this  principle,  which  saps  the  foundation  of  revealed 
religion,  by  bringing  the  Bible  to  the  test  of  a  pre-con- 
ceived^opinion,  and  destroying  its  authority,  as'  the  su- 
preme standard  of  our  faith  and  practice.     Does  not  the 


OF    CHRISTIANITY.  201 

language  of  some  of  the  conventions  assembled  for  the 
purpose  of  breaking  the  bonds  of  the  slave  indicate  their 
want  of  confidence  in  the  Gospel  ?  It  has  been  recently 
said  by  a  distinguished  advocate  of  the  rights  of  man,  in 
substance,  that  if  the  Gospel  tolerates  the  relation  of 
master  and  slave,  the  Gospel  must  be  abandoned,  and 
the  Christian  Church  threatened  that  if  they  do  not  so 
interpret  the  word  of  Gt)d  as  to  make  it  denounce  the 
relation  in  the  abstract,  and  make  its  immediate  abandon- 
ment a  term  of  communion,  that  Christianity  must  give 
place  to  a  better  system  of  morality.  This  is  an  extreme 
case,  and  an  infidel  opinion,  but  demonstrates  the  final 
result  of  exalting  reason  above  the  Word  of  God.  This 
want  of  reverence  is  also  perceivable  in  the  prayers  of 
many  who  come  into  the  presence  of  the  King  of  kings 
with  an  evident  lack  of  godly  fear,  who  address  themselves 
to  the  Divine  Majesty  as  though  they  were  conversing 
with  an  equal,  and  with  a  brazen  confidence  rather 
argue  than  ask,  rather  demand  than  pray.  The  building 
consecrated  to  the  worship  of  God  is  frequently  dese- 
crated by  harangues  on  every  topic,  from  men  of  every 
character;  and  a  want  of  reverence  is  often  indicated  in 
the  deportment  of  tliose  who  are  assembled  in  the  sanctu- 
ary— they  hear  the  messenger  of  God,  if  they  condescend 
to  listen  at  all,  as  they  would  a  political  orator,  and 
treat  his  discussion  as  though  it  were  a  debate,  and 
**  consider  not  tliat  they  do  evil,"  though  a  voice  from 
6 


202         THE  SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENT 

the  Holy  Spirit  is  in  their  ears,  "  Keep  thy  foot  when 
thou  goest  to  the  house  of  God,  and  be  more  ready  to 
hear  than  to  pay  the  sacrifice  of  fools."  An  increasing 
irreverence  manifested  toward  the  Bible,  the  Ministry 
and  the  Ordinances,  is  abundantly  indicative  of  the  ten- 
dency to  divest  the  doctrines  of  revelation  of  mystery — 
the  ordinances  of  sacredness — the  ministry  of  respect — 
and  the  Word  of  the  Ufe-giving  power  of  the  "  Spirit  that 
quickeneth." 

A  more  conclusive  evidence  of  the  fact  that  the  Super- 
natural Element  of  the  Gospel  is  practically  overlooked, 
undervalued  or  denied,  is  to  be  found  in  the  significant 
silence  which  is,  for  the  most  part,  observed  in  relation  to 
the  doctrine  of  angels.  That  we  are  surrounded  by  an 
economy  of  spiritual  being,  which,  though  not  the  object 
of  our  senses,  is  yet  exerting  upon  human  affairs  a  di- 
rect and  universal  influence,  is  a  clearly  revealed  truth. 
Our  Lord  expressly  teaches  that  good  angels  are  minis- 
tering spirits,  that  they  are  active,  and  interested  in  the 
fortunes  of  men,  and  rejoice  in  their  holy  habitations  over 
one  sinner  that  repenteth.  "  Take  heed  that  ye  despise 
not  one  of  these  little  ones,  for  I  say  unto  you,  that  in 
Heaven  their  angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Fa- 
ther which  is  in  Heaven,"  is  the  testimony  of  the  God- 
Man  Mediator,  who  has  told  us  also  that  the  soul  of  Laza- 
rus was  carried  by  angels  to  Abraham's  bosom ;  and  Paul 
declares    that   the  Apostles    were  made   spectacles   to 


OF    CHRISTIANITY.  203 

angels  and  men.  On  the  other  hand,  we  are  connected 
with  the  fallen  angels  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  not  only 
by  our  apostacy  in  Adam,  but  by  the  continued  do- 
minion of  the  god  of  this  world  over  the  children  of  diso- 
bedience. The  adversary  of  souls  as  a  roaring  lion  yet 
seeks  whom  he  may  destroy,  and  apostate  angels  are  his 
servants  and  agents  to  draw  men  down  to  perdition. 
They  are  styled,  in  the  New  Testament,  principalities  and 
powers,  whom  Christ  is  said  by  the  Apostle  to  have 
spoiled,  in  his  triumph  over  death  and  hell.  The  war- 
fere  of  the  Christian  is  said  to  be  with  evil  spirits  in  high 
places,  and  against  him  thrones  and  dominions,  principali- 
ties and  powers,  are  continually  arrayed — the  manner 
of  whose  influence  is  a  profound  mystery,  as  is  the  action 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  good  angels,  while  the  fact  is  per- 
fectly intelligible,  and  the  revelation  of  it  too  plain  to 
be  misunderstood- 

But  how  much  influence  do  these  important  and 
awful  truths  exert  upon  the  church  and  the  world  at  the 
present  time?  How  many  professing  Christians  have 
reference  to  them  in  their  prayers,  and  watch  against 
the  wiles  of  evil  spirits  ?  How  many  ministers  habitu- 
ally present  these  truths  as  momentous — as  deeply  con- 
cerning the  question  of  salvation?  How  often  is  the 
solemn  motive  urged  upon  men  that  they  are  surrounded 
with  a  cloud  of  witnesses,  and  that  opposing  host  of 
angels  contend  for  the  soul  of  man  in  this  valley  of  de- 


204 


THE    SUPERNATURAL    ELEMENT 


cision  ?  Not  that  these  truths  are  obliterated  from  our 
confessions  of  faith,  or  directly  denied  by  any  evangelical 
denomination,  but  their  power  is  gone — no  practical  in- 
terest is  manifested  in  them — no  considerable  influence 
do  they  exert.  How  few  venture  in  the  face  of  the  shal- 
low materialism  of  the  day  to  urge  upon  the  consciences  of 
men  the  existence  and  influence  of  the  spiritual  economy  ? 
How  many  are  bold  enough  to  tell  a  generation,  wise  in 
their  own  conceit,  that  a  spiritual  body  is,  to  a  true  phi- 
losophy, no  greater  marvel  than  a  natural  body,  and  that 
the  existence  of  superior  intelligences,  diff'erently  consti- 
tuted from  man,  is  taught  by  the  extent  of  the  universe ; 
inasmuch  as  God,  who  obviously  made  our  planet  for 
human  inspection,  has  doubtless  created  Powers  and 
Principalities  who  are  able  to  survey  a  universe  and  com- 
pass the  vast  distances  which  to  us  are  "  impassable  soli- 
tudes of  space  ?"  Do  Christians  in  general  act  as  though 
they  stood  on  high  'vantage  ground  on  this  subject,  and 
were  able  to  put  to  silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish  men  ? 
Do  they  value  as  they  ought  the  power  of  these  truths 
in  their  own  experience  ?  Is  not  the  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints  accommodated  to  the  Sadducean  philosophy 
which  denies  both  angel  and  spirit  ?  No  man  can  read 
the  Bible  without  perceiving  that  the  existence  and  influ- 
ence of  good  and  evil  angels  is  plainly  revealed;  and 
what  must  be  the  result  of  the  silence  of  the  Church 
upon  the  world — will  they  not  despise,  and  wonder,  and 
ish? 


OF    CHRISTIANITY.  205 

The  demi-gods  of  polytheism  were  derived  from  the  tra- 
dition of  the  revelation  of  the  doctrine  of  angels.  The  an- 
cient Pagans  acknowledged  that  every  man  had  both  a 
good  and  evil  genius,  or  angel,  to  whose  suggestions  he 
was  continually  exposed.  How  did  the  first  Missionaries 
of  the  Cross  meet  the  errors  of  Paganism?  Did  they 
deny  or  conceal  the  true  doctrine  of  angels  ?  No :  they 
proclaimed  to  the  Pagan  world,  "ye  worship  devils,  and 
not  God ;  you  have  exalted  fallen  angels  in  your  temples ; 
you  have  listened  to  the  suggestions  and  been  led  cap- 
tive at  the  will  of  the  spirits  who  kept  not  their  first 
estate,  and  who  are  leading  you  down  to  the  depths  of 
hell.  They  never  denied  that  polytheism  had  its  spirit- 
ual agencies  at  work,  though  they  demonstrated  that 
they  were  the  agencies  of  evil  angels — of  Thrones  and 
Dominions — ^who  were  cast  out  of  Heaven. 

May  it  not  be  true  that^  in  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel 
in  the  dark  places  of  the  earth,  something  of  the  power 
and  directness  of  the  primitive  method  of  attack  upon 
idolatry  is  wanting  ?  Has  not  the  leaven  of  our  perni- 
cious philosophy  affected  the  great  work  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, by  weakening  the  supernatural  element  of  the 
faith  ?  The  soul  of  man  is  so  constituted  that  he  has,  by 
nature,  a  dim  consciousness  or  instinct  of  the  world  of 
spirits.  The  most  ignorant  savages  have  a  dread  of  un- 
seen powers,  and  acknowledge  an  unseen  world;  their 
worst  superstitions  are  but  corruptions  of  revealed  truths, 


206  THE  SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENT 

of  which  some  innate  apprehension  in  the  soul  of  man  is 
every  where  manifest — and  in  this  are  entitled  to  more 
respect  than  a  philosophy  which  never  had  a  ray  of 
spiritual  light,  and  is  both  earthly  and  sensual.  Have 
we  not  failed  to  show  the  Pagan  world  the  connection 
between  their  errors  and  the  original  revelation  of  God 
to  man,  and  too  often  confounded  what  is  true  and  what 
is  false  in  their  systems,  in  a  common  condemnation  ? 

When  the  apostle  Paul,  upon  Mars  Hill,  proclaimed 
to  the  idolatrous  Athenians  the  doctrine  of  Jesus,  and 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  he  selected  an  altar  on 
which  was  this  inscription,  "To  the  Unknown  God." 
"  Him,"  said  the  apostle,  "  whom  ye  ignorantly  worship, 
I  declare  unto  you."  He  quoted  among  the  Heathen  the 
acknowledgment  of  their  own  poets,  and  evidently  sought 
to  convince  them  that  the  Gospel  was  a  more  full  and 
perfect  revelation  of  many  truths  held  by  them  in  igno- 
rance and  superstition.  The  symbol  of  salvation  is  univer- 
sal in  the  sacrificial  rite ;  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that 
the  innocent  victim  which,  in  the  Pagan  sacrifice,  is  of- 
fered for  the  guilty,  the  Paschal  Lamb  of  the  Jews,  and 
the  broken  body  and  blood  shed,  signified  in  the  Sacra- 
mental Symbols  of  the  Christian,  are  signs  remarkably 
similar,  and  declarative  of  the  same  truths.  Was  there  no 
design  in  the  Divine  wisdom  in  exhibiting  the  doctrine  of 
redemption,  in  the  beginning,  to  Adam,  Abel,  and  Noah, 
afterwards  to  Moses  and  the  Hebrews,  and  in  the  last 


OP    CHRISTIANITY.  20 V 

dispensation,  to  the  Apostles  and  Primitive  Church,  by 
emblems,  the  exact  agreement  of  which  is  obvious  by  a 
universal  language,  the  signs  of  which  should  every 
where  be  found,  and  might  be  every  where  improved  by 
the  Heralds  of  the  Cross?  Should  not  the  Christian 
Missionary  say  to  the  Pagan  worshiper,  "  Him  whom  ye 
ignorantly  show  forth  in  your  sacrifice  I  declare  unto 
you — I  present  you  the  key  of  your  own  system — the 
explanation  of  your  own  rites,  which,  perverted  and  ut- 
terly corrupted  by  your  superstitions,  are  yet  founded 
upon  everlasting  truths,  of  which  I  bring  you  the  original 
revelation.  I  do  not  deny  that  you  worship  realities ;  I 
acknowledge  that  they  are  Thrones  and  Powers  before 
which  you  prostrate  yourself,  but  they  are  fallen  princi- 
palities, who  have  usurped  in  our  apostate  world  the 
homage  which  belongs  only  to  the  true  God." 

Were  the  true  scriptural  doctrine  of  the  agency  of 
angels  revived  and  presented  as  in  the  first  centuries  of 
Christianity,  might  we  not  hope  to  encounter  less  oppo- 
sition, and  weaken  the  prejudices  in  the  Pagan  mind 
that  Christians  believe  neither  in  angel  or  spirit  There 
is  a  depth  and  power  in  these  truths  which  would  give 
to  our  Christianity  both  at  home  and  abroad  an  element 
in  which  it  is  now  greatly  deficient,  restore  to  its  proper 
place  a  doctrine  which  is  prominent  on  the  pages  of  reve- 
lation, and  give  to  the  Gospel  its  true  character  as  an 
exponent  of  "  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come."     If  the 


208  THE  SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENT 

missionaries  of  Rome  have  corrupted  the  truth  to  win 
the  Heathen  to  a  new  form  of  demon  worship,  shall  Pro- 
testants be  driven  into  the  opposite  error,  and  abandon  the 
just  influence  which  a  proper  presentation  of  the  doctrine 
of  angels  would  not  fail  to  give  to  those  who  proclaim  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  in  the  dark  places  of  the 
earth  ? 

But  the  Supernatural  Element  of  Christianity  is  found 
eminently  in  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  the 
dispensation  of  the  Spirit  which  gives  power  and  efficacy 
to  the  outward  and  visible  instrumentalities  of  the 
Gospel.  No  doctrine  is  more  insisted  upon — no  truth 
more  frequently  exhibited — in  the  revelation  of  Him 
who  knows  man,  and  the  tendency  of  his  depraved  na- 
ture to  materialism,  than  this — that  "the  kingdom  of 
God  is  not  in  word,  but  in  power."  We  are  constantly 
warned  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  against  substituting  the 
image  for  the  reality — the  shadow  for  the  substance — 
the  symbol  for  the  thing  signified — the  letter  for  the 
Spirit  We  are  taught  that  it  is  the  office  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  reprove  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteosness,  and  of 
judgment.  Those  who  enter  the  kingdom  of  God  are 
said  to  be  born  "  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh, 
nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God."  "  It  is  the  Spirit  that 
quicke'neth,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing" — is  the  testimony 
of  the  Redeemer  himself,  who,  in  his  last  words  to  his 
disciples,  recorded  in  the  Gospel  of  John,  expressly  as- 


OF    CHtilSTIANITY.  209 

cribes  the  whole  work  of  conversion,  regeneration  and 
sanctification  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  "Nevertheless  I  tell 
you  the  truth,  it  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away ; 
for  if  I  go  not  away  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto 
you ;  but  if  I  depart  1  will  send  Him  unto  you ;  and  when 
He  is  come,  He  will  reprove  the  world  of  sin,  of  right- 
eousness and  of  j  udgment  I  have  many  thing-s  to  siiy 
unto  you ;  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now.  Howbeit  when 
He,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come,  He  will  guide  you  into 
all  truth ;  and  He  will  show  you  things  to  come.  He  shell 
glorify  me,  for  He  shall  receive  of  mine,  and  shall  show 
it  unto  you."  John  xvi,  7,  14.  But  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  multiply  passages  to  show  that  the  entire  work 
of  man's  recovery,  from  the  first  serious  convictions 
which  disturb  his  carnal  security  to  the  final  and  perfect 
sanctification  of  the  believer,  in  the  hour  and  article  of 
death,  is  attributed  solely  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  The 
apostle  Paul  declares  to  the  Corinthian  Church,  that 
his  speech  and  his  preaching  were  "  not  with  enticing 
words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the 
Spirit,  and  of  power;"  that  their  faith  might  not  stand 
in^the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God. 

This  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  supernatural,  extra- 
ordinary, and  efficient;  the  abiding  and  present  evidence 
of  the  presence  of  God  in  the  Church.  It  is  to  the 
Christian  Church  what  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of 
fire  by  night,  was  to  the  Jewish — the  perpetual  super- 


210  THE  SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENT 

natural  testimony  of  the  Gospel — the  voice  from  the 
Excellent  Glory — the  Shekinah  of  the  new  dispensa- 
tion— which  was  to  remain  after  the  inferior  work  of 
miracles  should  disappear.  It  was  declared  by  the 
apostle  Paul  that  the  gift  of  tongues  should  cease ;  that 
prophecy  should  fail,  and  knowledge  should  vanish  away ; 
but  the  greater  office  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  to  remain — 
the  living  energy  and  Divine  attestation  and  seal  of  the 
Gospel.  The  Church  are  directed  to  diligently  use  the 
means  of  God's  appointment,  with  the  distinct  under- 
standing that  the  power  by  which  they  are  made 
effectual,  is  not  inherent,  but  superadded — not  ordinary 
and  uniform  in  its  actings,  but  extraordinary,  that  the 
power  might  be  seen  to  be  of  God,  when  the  times  of  re- 
freshing should  come  from  His  presence — not  uncertain, 
but  effectual — not  natural,  in  the  common  connection  of 
means  and  ends,  causes  and  effects,  or  by  ascertained 
laws — but  supernatural,  beyond  our  cognizance  or  ap- 
prehension as  to  the  mode  of  the  Divine  operation,  wliich 
is  likened  to  the  creation  of  material  things  when  the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  bring- 
ing order  out  of  confusion  and  light  out  of  darkness, 
"  when  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  and  all  the  sons 
of  God  shouted  for  joy."  The  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  the  Divine  supernatural  attestation  of  Christianity, 
which,  without  it,  is  without  a  living  energy,  a  present 
attestation,  or  a  positive  efficiency.     The  highest  con- 


OF    CHRISTIANITY.  211 

ceivable  motives  are  indeed  presented,  and  all  necessary 
truth  revealed,  but  there  is  no  adaptation  in  the  human 
heart  to  receive  it,  until  prepared  by  the  Spirit,  until  the 
the  good  seed  falls  on  good  ground ;  for  the  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  neither  can 
he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned. 

Upon  this  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  the  in- 
fluence of  the  philosophy  of  our  age  is  manifest.  The 
ingenuity  of  gifted  minds  has  been  taxed  to  the  utmost 
to  explain  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  destroy  its 
character,  as  a  supernatural  and  efficient  operation  upon 
the  soul.  One  has  taught  that  the  action  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  is  upon  the  truth  rather  than  the  heart — as  though 
truth  could  receive  a  new  attribute;  another  has  con- 
tended that  He  works  by  a  uniform  law,  in  connection 
with  means,  and  that  the  process  of  regeneration  has  at 
last  come  to  be  understood  and  explained ;  another  pro- 
claims that  regeneration  is  not  the  direct  work  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  but  of  the  individual  renewed,  who  is  simply 
brought  by  the  Spirit's  presentation  of  motives  to  a 
change  of  purpose. 

The  influence  of  these  and  similar  views  has  been  to 
exalt  the  means  at  the  expense  of  the  power — to  give  to 
men  and  measures,  to  eloquence,  motives  and  truth,  the 
glory  which  belongs  to  God  only.  The  faith  of  the 
Church  is  made  to  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men  rather 
than  in  the  power  of  God ;  and  though  the  doctrine  is 


212  THE    SUPERNATURAL    ELEMENT 

not  abandoned,  it  has  been  rapidly  losing  its  power.  Do 
Christians,  when  they  enter  the  sanctuary  and  hsten  to 
the  Word,  realize  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost — 
"  looking  for  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto 
eternal  life  ?"  Do  they  consider  with  reverence  and  godly 
fear  the  presence  and  action  of  a  supernatural,  omnipotent 
agent,  able  to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  children  of  men  as 
the  rivers  of  waters  are  turned,  who  can,  in  answer  lo 
their  prayers,  make  the  flesh  of  those  who  hear  to  creep 
with  terrors  of  the  world  to  come?  Do  they  teach 
their  children  to  wait  with  awe  in  the  place — consecrated 
indeed,  by  no  splendor  of  art,  ornamented  by  no  costly 
architecture,  dazzling  the  eye  by  no  idolatrous  images  of 
the  invisible  and  spiritual,  but  made  dreadful  by  the 
presence  of  the  Eternal  Spirit — none  other  than  the 
house  of  God,  the  very  gate  of  Heaven?  Does  the 
Believer  realize  as  he  ought  that  he  has  come  "unto 
Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the 
Heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innumerable  company 
OF  ANGELS,  to  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the 
first  born,  which  are  written  in  heaven,  and  to  God  the 
judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  ?" 
Is  the  unrenewed  hearer  made  to  feel  the  awful  so- 
lemnity with  which  he  should  listen  to  the  message  of 
the  Gospel,  where  the  Eternal  Spirit  is  present  to 
confirm  the  word,  "  if  God  perad venture  will  give  him 
repentance    to    the    acknowledgment    of   the    truth/' 


OF    CHRISTJANITY.  213 

Have  these  considerations  their  proper  weight  and  in- 
fluence ? 

Our  Puritan  and  Presbyterian  fathers  could  listen  to 
sermons  of  two  hours'  length,  and  wish  they  w^ere  longer. 
They  did  not  weary  in  the  service  of  the  sanctuary,  or 
make  their  posture  in  the  house  of  God  a  matter  of  ease 
and  luxury.  They  were,  indeed,  fed  with  marrow  and 
fcitness,  and  not  with  the  husks  of  a  vain  philosophy; 
and  they  had  faith  and  patience  to  digest  the  food  which 
angels  eat  Confidence,  in  the  darkest  hour,  in  the  pro- 
mise and  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  their  solemn 
deportment,  their  reverent  attendance  upon  the  word  and 
ordinances,  their  unwavering  orthodoxy,  and  their  strict 
morahty  and  non-conformity  to  the  world — are  strangely 
in  contrast  with  the  laxity  in  doctrine  and  morals 
which  is  increasingly  characteristic  of  the  present  age. 

But  the  grand  difficulty  is  found  in  the  philosophy 
which  recognizes  nothing  as  sacred,  denies  the  powers  of 
the  invisible  world,  gives  to  man  the  attributes  of  angels, 
and  makes  the  limits  of  knowledge  synonymous  with  the 
boundaries  of  its  own  sensual  vision.  Having  robbed 
nature  of  the  presence  of  the  Divinity — having  dethroned 
the  Lawgiver  in  the  discovery  and  analysis  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  his  government — having  subjected  the  soul  to 
material  and  mechanical  laws,  and  promulgated  a  grosser 
materialism  than  the  polytheist  who  imaged  forth  the 
unseen  in  visible  (urms,  and  gave  a  voice  and  a  deity  to 


214  THE  SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENT 

all  things  in  nature, — this  philosophy,  as  a  final  effort, 
seeks  to  deprive  Christianity  of  its  supernatural  ele- 
ment— to  subject  it  to  ordinary  laws — to  account  for  its 
progress  and  power  on  natural  principles,  ascertained 
and  common  causes,  and  the  skillful  adjustment  of  means 
to  ends;  and,  having  taken  the  Holy  Spirit  out  of  the 
Gospel,  is  content  to  give  it  the  first  place  in  the  Ethical 
Systems  of  the  world,  at  least  until  a  better  is  discovered. 
On  the  other  hand,  an  extravagant  Transcendentalism 
seeks  to  gTaft  a  pseudo  spiritual  scheme  upon  the  meagre 
faith  of  the  Socinian  churches  of  New  England ;  and  as 
a  desperate  defence,  a  last  resort  against  the  progress  of 
Materiahsm,  is  received  by  many  in  Orthodox  connections, 
who  do  not  perceive  in  it  the  revival  of  the  doctrines  of 
Spinoza,  in  which  God  is  in  every  thing,  and  every  thing 
in  God.  The  ultra  Transcendentalist  comes  by  another 
road  to  the  same  result  as  the  Materialist — the  one 
leveling  down,  the  other  levehng  up;  the  one  denying 
altogether  the  spiritual  and  supernatural,  the  other 
acknowledging  nothing  else;  the  one  deifying  human 
nature  by  rejecting  all  that  is  above  it,  the  other  by 
making  every  man  a  partaker  of  the  Divine  reason  and 
an  incarnation  of  the  Divine  nature.  The  one  scheme  is 
abhorrent  of  mystery,  the  other  of  all  beside;  the  first 
reduces  all  thing's  to  mathematical  demonstration,  and 
applies  to  all  existences  the  compass  and  the  square — 
the  second   rejoices  in  speculations  profoundly  unintel- 


OF    CHRISTIANITY.  215 

ligible,  and  determines  all  material  forms  to  be  "such 
stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of."  Thus  ever,  the  wisdom 
of  this  world  rushes  from  one  extreme  to  the  other, 
regardless  of  the  Divine  philosophy  which  teaches  that 
the  material  and  spiritual  are  equally  real ;  that "  there  is 
a  natural  body  and  a  spiritual  body" — a  hfe  that  now  is 
and  a  life  to  come — things  which  are  visible  and  mate- 
rial— things  which  are  unseen  and  supernatural ;  a  natu- 
ral life  and  a  spiritual  life,  both  the  creation  of  the  Father 
of  Spirits,  who  hath  given  to  the  different  economies  in 
his  creation,  "  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  him ;  and  to  every 
seed  his  own  body."  The  Transcendental  philosophy,  how- 
ever, is  not  likely  to  captivate  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind.  It 
is  Teutonic  in  its  origin,  and  will  flourish  only  in  Germany, 
where  infidelity  is  itself  mystical.  Yet  in  truth  this 
shadow  and  semblance  of  a  true  spiritual  system  is  more 
attractive  than  the  utter  barrenness  of  Materialism. 


THE    END. 


f  . 


^p 


14  DAY  USE 

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-CTLD    ,,M;7?.on»«^ 


(P65728l0)476-lA-32  ^^^"^g;jfeg^**''"* 


YB  45295 


